Invasion of the Newbies
by Spamela
Summary: Pine Valley had been invaded. Slowly and then not so slowly known and loved citizens had disappeared as newer and, more often than not, younger characters came on the scene and dominated one storyline after another.
1. Chapter 1

Synopsis

_Pine Valley had been invaded. Slowly and then not so slowly known and loved citizens had disappeared as newer and, more often than not, younger characters came on the scene and dominated one storyline after another. Nobody could explain the terrible change, although many had noticed it. It wasn't for Ratings. The Ratings were headed down the drain. Why were the Powers that Be intent on destroying the history of the most well-beloved town on Daytime TV? Why indeed? Zach Slater and Kendall Hart are hired by Person or Persons Unknown to solve the Mystery. Before it is too late. Note: This story was begun before the Janet Greene's Adventure in Quicksand storyline on AMC. It takes place after Greenlee has left but before Zendall has divorced. In it Kendall is not pregnant and the Casino never blows up._

-------------------------------------

_Chapter One – "Zendall"_

Kendall Hart Slater stifled a yawn and settled her fashion-model slim body into a more comfortable pose on the couch. She looked not unlike a thoroughly beautiful, thoroughly bored cat. She was in fact beyond bored. High noon and the phone hadn't rung once that day. Or the day before. Or the day before that. Or really, EVER. The Kendall Hart/Zach Slater Detective Agency (or "Zendall" as their business cards read) was not exactly setting Pine Valley on fire. Briefly, Kendall surveyed their modest but comfortable office from her place on the comfortable but modest couch. Very Sam Spade, she thought. Curtainless widow complete with crooked blinds, shabby desk and chair, retro-styled telephone, two wooden high-backed chairs for clients if they ever had any clients, magazine-strewn coffee table and the couch upon which she was lounging. Everything in a shade of brown. If it weren't for the laptop computer on the coffee table in front of her, she would have thought she was on a 1930's movie set. A "B" movie at that.

For the thousandth time, Kendall wondered if cashing in her shares of Fusion and Zach selling his Casinos had been ill-advised, foolhardy and/or stupid. Maybe there wasn't room in Pine Valley for another Detective Agency. People were used to Tad and Aidan. People liked Tad and Aidan. True, Tad and Aidan had never actually solved a case. But they certainly knew how to banter, and that counted. But Hell! Zach could banter with the best of 'em. There had to be a better explanation for their apparent failure.

"Stop brooding, Kendall, it'll give you lines."

Kendall looked over at her One and Only, who was leaning back on his chair with his feet on the desk. Very Sam Spade. "And if I have lines on my face, you'll stop loving me?" she asked him as a point of information.

He shook his ruggedly handsome head. "How can I stop loving you?" he asked her innocently. "We're not in love, remember?"

She remembered. Not being in love with each other had been the terms of their marriage. Kendall had married Zach to protect herself from falling in love again, and Zach had married Kendall as a legal maneuver to keep his Casinos from being seized by his son.

"Well, that was certainly the Plan," Kendall thought now.

"We're in a Marriage of Convenience," Zach was continuing. "In name only. We're a business deal!"

Kendall laughed out loud. "WHAT business, Beloved? Haven't you noticed? Nobody's hired us! We're a Detective Agency in name only!"

Zach refused to see it Kendall's way. "It's only been six weeks. Zendall is new in town. Give us time, we'll get us a mystery to solve."

"Cockeyed optimist," Kendall scoffed.

He shrugged his ruggedly handsome shoulders. "What can I do? I'm just a glass-half-full kind of guy."

Kendall smiled in spite of herself. That was the thing about Zach. He could always make her smile. Even after Ryan came back from the dead and she suddenly, and inexplicably wasn't having his and Greenlee's baby anymore. That had been peculiar. She was right in the middle of a front-burner storyline and a surrogate pregnancy and poof both were gone. So was Greenlee for that matter. Greenlee's departure had knocked Kendall way off-balance. Once bitter enemies, they had become closer than close since Ryan's supposed death. So close that her Mother had thought they were lovers! Erica had been completely off base of course. But still, there was an undeniable void in Kendall's life since Greenlee left. Was that why Zach had been able to talk her so easily into starting a detective agency of all things?

"Cheer up, Lovely," he was urging her now. "The phone is bound to ring sooner or later."

The phone began to ring.

-------------------------------------

_Kendall and Zach running a detective agency? Who could ask for anything more! Return for Chapter Two, at which point the plot will begin to thicken! Your review would be appreciated!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter Two – "People Are Disappearing"_

Across town, Opal Cortlandt was alone in the Glamourama, watching the clock with a worried look. "Where in the world are Palmer and Brooke?" she wondered, more than slightly annoyed. They should have been there by now. "My stars, they should have been early! This is no time for dilly-dallying!" They were in a crisis, and decisive action had to be taken! How could they be late to the first Emergency Veterans' Strategy Meeting?

"What is happening to us?" she asked herself, as the seconds ticked by. Another week with no storyline. How long could this go on? Recurring status was a real possibility, and one she didn't much want to think about. It had happened to others she knew. Poor Marian. She hadn't been seen in months. And where was Liza? Banished. And where was Edmund? Killed off. And where was Maria? Exiled to Miami. And why? Why? WHY?

The answer was all too clear to Opal. The Veterans were being pushed aside to make room for the hordes of Newbies who were taking over Pine Valley. At this point they dominated every storyline. Front-burner, all of 'em. Where did that leave her? Where did it leave her ex-husband and all her friends?

"Doomed," she murmured. "All of us are doomed!"

She knew Palmer didn't believe her. He thought another major storyline was just around the corner. Opal snorted. If that were true, it had been around that corner for two years.

"Wake up and smell the Ovaltine, you old fool! The Powers That Be have no further use for us! To them we're dinosaurs!"

"You may be a dinosaur," he shot back. "I am a swan!"

"You are a dead duck," she corrected him. "And so am I. Palmer, why did it all change?"

"Why did all WHAT change?" he asked, refusing to see the truth in what she was telling him. "Opal, what are you blathering about? What's changed?"

Everything had changed. Pine Valley was almost unrecognizable. People she had never heard of were marrying the Chandlers. How could that be? Adam belonged with Brooke. Everybody with sense realized that. And that wasn't the only thing wrong. Weird things were happening all around her. Ryan Lavery had come back to town, safe, sound, hale, hearty and extremely alive, which was wonderful of course except that it had wrecked his memorial service, which had severely shortened Opal's time on camera, and raised more questions than it answered. Worse than that, her very own dead daughter-in-law, Dixie, hadn't really come back from the grave after all. The woman pretending to be Dixie had confessed to being an imposter. Turned out it was Dixie's half-sister that nobody had ever heard of before. How bizarre was that? When JR found out it just about killed him. The news hadn't done Palmer much good either. Poor Palmer. Seeing Dixie again, or someone he thought was Dixie, had given him a new lease on life. So much for new leases. Why were things so off-kilter and out-of-whack?

Brooke was at the door, ringing the bell and banging the knocker like her life depended on it.

"He's gone!" she reported breathlessly when Opal let her in. "Palmer has vanished!"

"You've reached Zendall," the answering machine was informing the caller. "Sorry, but all operatives are currently helping other clients. Your call is important to us, so please leave your name, number and the time you called and somebody will get back to you as soon as possible. Please wait for the beep and thank you for calling!"

"You lazy lout!" Kendall laughed. "Zach, the phone is right in front of you on the desk. Couldn't you make the tiniest effort to pick up the receiver and talk to the person?"

"I may not want to talk to the person," he explained logically. "It might be another telemarketer. I have no intention of subscribing to 'The Banner' or 'The Sun'. I don't even know where Llanview is."

"Kendall, it's me," they could hear the caller saying. "Call me when you can. I'm in trouble."

It wasn't a telemarketer. It was Ryan.

"Palmer has vanished?" Opal repeated to a stunned and shaken Brooke. "When? How?"

"We were on our way over here," Brooke recounted, trying to stay calm. "He wanted to stop off at Wildwind to see Di. I guess he wanted to yell at her some more. Anyway, he went in but he never came out again! Di swore up and down she never even saw him!"

"Di!" Opal sniffed. "She probably did away with him. There's nothing I wouldn't put past that lying she-demon!"

Opal had not as yet let go of the bitterness that Di's impersonation of Dixie has caused throughout the town.

"I don't think Di would hurt Palmer," Brooke had to disagree. "But I can't imagine what's happened to him. I've tried calling him, but his cell phone is off. I don't even get voice mail! All I hear is this hauntingly familiar tune I almost recognize but don't."

"That's not like Palmer," Opal said. "I'm calling Tad! We need a detective on this case!"

"Ryan, why do you need a detective?" Kendall asked coolly, after sprinting off the sofa and grabbing the phone before Ryan finished his message and hung up.

"Who said I need a detective?" Ryan asked. "Kendall, I need you!"

"He doesn't need a detective, does he?" Zach checked just to make sure. He got up from the desk and began pacing. He didn't like the idea of Ryan phoning them. Actually, he didn't like Ryan altogether. He wished his wife shared the feeling but he didn't believe that for a second, despite her recent claims to the contrary. Kendall blamed Ryan loudly and frequently for Greenlee's sudden departure. But now he was calling them. What did he want? "What does he want?"

"Dunno yet," Kendall evaded. She turned her back on Zach and began whispering furiously into the phone. "Ryan, this has got to stop! You call me at home! You call me on my cell! You call me at Fusion and I don't even work there anymore! What do you want from me?"

"I need you, Kendall," the voice on the phone revealed. "With each and every fiber of my being!"

"Does he want me to get him out of town again?" Zach asked hopefully. He had helped do that once before when Ryan wanted the world in general, and his wife Greenlee in particular, to think he was dead. "I can start working on that right away. And there's no charge!"

"I'll ask him," Kendall lied. She bent over the phone again and resumed the furious whispering. "Ryan, you don't need me. You never needed me. I was a detour. A detour! Does that ring any bells?"

Ryan laid it all on the line. "Kendall, with Greenlee gone, I don't know where to turn!"

"What's he saying?" Zach asked, trying not to sound as irritated as he felt.

"He doesn't know where to turn," Kendall reported. "I'm about to tell him."

"How could she walk out on me?" Ryan was moaning. "She didn't even leave a note! I call her cell, but it's off. I don't even get voice mail! All I hear is this hauntingly familiar tune I almost recognize but don't!"

"Kendall, hang up on him," Zach tried. "Clients may be trying to get through."

"Yeah, right," she muttered. "Ryan, my hubby wants you out of my life," she translated to Zendall's sole caller on a six-line phone. "And, believe it or not, so do I!"

Zach wished to the core of his being that she meant that. More than that, he wished he could tell her how he really felt about her. "I care about you" didn't cover it. Not that he didn't care about her. But that was the least of it. She was the last thought he had every night and the first thought he had every morning, even though she wasn't lying next to him. He couldn't get her off of his mind any more than he could get her into his bed.

"Okay, I hung up. Happy now?"

Happy, he wasn't. Nuts about her, he was.

The phone began to ring again.

"Hang up on him," Zach directed. "It'll do him good."

But it wasn't Ryan this time.

"I need to hire your Agency," a metallic voice intoned. "People are disappearing."

_People are disappearing? This could be serious! Please check out Chapter 3 where there's sure to be more questions than answers! As always, I'd love to read your review!_


	3. Chapter 3

_ChapterThree – "Zendall Goes for a Drive While Tad Eats Breakfast"_

_The plot thickens as Zendall begins their investigation while Tad finishes up his Snickeros._

"I need to hire your Agency," a metallic voice intoned. "People are disappearing."

"What do you mean 'people are disappearing'? What people? Who IS this?"

All of Kendall's questions were answered by the loud "click" on the other end of the line.

"Share with me, Lovely," Zach requested of her. "I'm your Partner."

Kendall was shaking her head and hanging up the phone. "Somebody's playing a joke on us, I guess." She frowned. "But it was a spooky joke."

Saying nothing more to him, she headed for the door.

"Where are we going?" Zach asked her, standing and moving away from the desk.

"Where you're going, I have no idea," she answered at once. "I'm going to see Ryan. That weird call may be connected to Greenlee's disappearance. Hey, this could be our first case!"

Zach was next to her before she could turn the doorknob. His hand covered hers, causing a wave of white heat to surge up her arm that would have made her gasp, if she hadn't become almost used to the effect a chance touch of his had on her.

"We'll take my car," he told her as they turned the doorknob together. "I'll drive."

But Kendall, who was shaking only slightly, had a different plan. "YOU take your car," she directed. "And I'll take mine."

"Why two cars?" he wanted to know.

She shrugged. "I like to drive." And she didn't want to sit that close to her Partner for any extended period of time. Except that she wanted that so much it made her ache.

"To save on gas, Lovely, we'll take your car," he said, outflanking her. "And you can drive. I'll even let you play the radio."

"Thanks a heap," she thanked him as they left the office together.

-------------------------------------

Tad Martin stared into his bowl of Cheerios and smashed Snickers and sighed. So much had gone wrong in his life lately. So many lies had been told to him and then heartlessly revealed. So much that he thought was back forever had been taken away again forever. At least he could depend on his breakfast to be the real deal. No other cereal was impersonating his Cheerios. At least not that he knew of.

"Aidan, you ever heard of fraudulent Cheerios?"

Aidan Devane, Tad's partner in the Agency, was pretending he was too busy playing the pinball machine in the corner of their not-so-spacious office to answer him. Over the last days not answering Tad had become a defense mechanism for Aidan, who couldn't have felt worse about Di's unmasking if it had been his own heart that was breaking. As it happened, Aidan's heart was happily unbroken and he planned on keeping it that way as long as he could. That didn't mean he was unmoved by his friend's pain. However, enough was enough.

"Tad, my once fun-loving friend, you are simply going to have to suck it up and go on with your life." There. He said it. He braced himself for the reaction.

"Good advice," Tad replied. "You're a true friend, Fish and Chips. If Tad Martin ever rises from the living-dead, I'll be sure and repeat your words of wisdom. Meanwhile, want some of my Snickeros? They make a swell lunch. Swell dinner too." Tad knew that for certain since he had eaten nothing else since the day he found out his Dixie was really Di Henry. Had that only been a week ago?

For his part, Aidan wasn't tempted in the least.

"Kind of you to offer, Mate, but they're all yours. Did I mention to you that no woman is worth it?"

Tad nodded. "Several thousand times. But there's where you're wrong. All women are worth it."

Especially Dixie, Tad thought. Only Dixie was dead again, and he had to come to terms with that.

"A case would help," Tad said. "If we had a mystery to solve, I'd have something else in my life besides Snickeros. Maybe."

Somebody was pounding on the door.

Tad, put down his cereal bowl and came to full attention.

"Hear that?" he crowed. "Opportunity knocks!"

-------------------------------------

"Slow down, Kendall."

Kendall ignored her husband. She wanted to get to Ryan's as fast as they could before the feel of Zach this close to her became too much for her to handle. Because it was already too much for her to handle, she tried to think about something, anything, else.

"Zach, when we start getting scads of cases and making tons of money can I hire an assistant?"

Zach considered her question with some care. He had learned early on that it was wise if one entered into a conversation with his wife to be as fully prepared as one could be.

"Why wait? We've already got tons of money, and think how much we're saving on gas today. We could hire an assistant now. And you're still going too fast."

"I know we can afford it. I only thought that including somebody else might dilute the intimacy."

She could not believe she had actually said that.

"Did I say 'intimacy'? I meant 'efficiency'."

Zach looked out the window on his side and scowled in contemplation. "I'm pretty sure you said 'intimacy'. I might have misheard you but I doubt that, since it's my habit to listen to you with rapt attention."

Kendall floored the pedal. "I mean, we'll need somebody to type and file and organize our calendar."

Zach nodded, yearning to grab the steering wheel, but restraining himself. "I agree. We would not want a disorganized calendar. Did you have a particular person in mind?" He hoped against hope she wouldn't suggest Ryan.

As it happened, Ryan was the furthest thing from her mind, and Zach was the closest. Damn him.

"It would be good to have somebody who could take care of the phones," she said idly, taking a corner at 80 miles an hour.

"You are going to get the two of us killed," Zach predicted calmly. "And then it won't matter who answers our phone."

-------------------------------------

The phone began ringing just as Aidan left the pinball machine to answer the door.

"Tad, we need your help!" Opal's voice crackled from the answering machine. "Brooke and I are on our way over! Palmer has disappeared!"

"Tad, I need your help!" Stuart cried out as Aidan let him in. "Marian has disappeared!"

_Greenlee, Palmer and Marian have vanished. Who's next? And who will get to solve the mystery first? Zendall? Taidan? More will be revealed as our Adventure continues!_


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter Four – "The Postman Always Rings at Least Once"_

A disheveled Ryan opened the door to his penthouse, a haunted and confused look in his otherwise blank eyes.

"Thank you, Kendall," he said humbly. "I knew you'd come."

Hardly believing their eyes, Kendall and Zach walked into the once immaculate apartment.

"You might want to hire somebody to tidy up in here," Zach suggested tactlessly. The once spotless living room was covered in wall-to-wall empty beer bottles. Used paper plates, plastic utensils and take-out containers littered the dusty mahogany coffee table.

"At least he's eating," Kendall murmured to Zach.

"Why do you still care?" he demanded of her, not really wanting to hear a true answer. "And while you're at it, you might want to invest in a few cans of air freshener," he continued to Ryan, who at this point lay crumpled on the couch. "It smells like something died in here."

"Something did," Ryan moaned. "Me."

Zach grimaced. "Oh, would that were so!"

"Can it," Kendall directed Zach, going to her prostrate former lover and current friend.

"I'm dead, Kendall," he informed her as she knelt beside him. "Every hope and dream I ever had left with Greenlee."

"That's not dead!" Zach begged to differ, his eyes blazing. "Let's go over to that window, Ryan. Lean out a little while I push. I'll show you dead!"

"Zach, you're not helping," Kendall said, never taking her eyes from Ryan as he lay face-down on the couch, helpless and hurting.

"I want to help," Zach replied in his own defense. "I'd give anything to help! Tell her, Ryan!"

"He wants to help me kill myself," Ryan told the couch.

"Well, that's not gonna happen!" Kendall declared forcefully. "Ryan, Greenlee left town six weeks ago. Six weeks ago, Ryan! You can't go on like this living on memories and take-out! You've got to pull yourself together!"

"She never made it home from the hospital after the fire," Ryan recounted sadly, as if it had happened the day before. "Jack said she phoned him from a plane. He said she was on her way to Paris. But I don't believe him."

Kendall patted Ryan's hand to console him, and noticed absently that touching him didn't have the effect upon her that it used to have. "Why would Jack lie?"

"Because he wants to save his daughter from this waste of space?" Zach guessed at once.

-------------------------------------

"And I know who's to blame!" Opal's voice was crackling over the answering machine as Aidan and Ted led in a distraught Stuart.

"Marian's gone," he repeated dully. "She didn't even leave a note. And when I call her cell phone, all I hear is --"

"A hauntingly familiar tune you almost recognize but don't," Opal's voice crackled. "Brooke, it's like what we hear when we call Palmer's cell!"

-------------------------------------

"Tell me about the song you hear when you call Greenlee's cell," Kendall was requesting, wishing she had Lily's pad to write on. "Zach, we need to pick up office supplies," she told him.

"Aye aye, Captain," he responded. "And some Glade for your depressed friend's wreck of a penthouse."

"Get stuffed, Slater," Ryan said with real feeling.

Kendall was dialing Greenlee's number. "What IS that?" she asked as the tune played itself for her. "It's like something out of a 1940's film noir."

Zach stood beaming at her. How could somebody like her ever have thrown herself away on somebody like Lavery?

"Like 'Double Indemnity'," she continued. "Or 'The Postman--'"

"'Always Rings Twice'," Zach finished. "That's what it sounds like, alright. I wonder what it is."

-------------------------------------

"It's the Newbies!" Opal cried out when she and Brooke arrived at Tad's and Aidan's office. "The Newbies are behind Palmer's disappearance!"

Tad loved Opal, but he was in no mood to deal with her wild-eyed speculations. "Did you have a particular Newbie in mind, Mama? There's quite a list!"

Opal did not hesitate for a split millisecond. "Dollars to donuts that she-devil Di Henry is the culprit!"

"I disagree," Brooke disagreed. "If it's any of them, it's Krystal."

Tad discounted Brooke's suspicions immediately. "You're jealous because she fooled Adam into marrying her and moved in on your storyline," he diagnosed. "I don't blame you, but your emotions are clouding your good judgment."

Brooke made a face at her former husband and still best friend. "YOU'RE going to talk to ME about clouded judgment? After romancing Krystal and Di? Why don't you phone Statesville and find out who's about to be released so you can figure out who you're going steady with next?"

Aidan snickered in spite of himself. "Good one, Brooke!"

"Can we get back to Marian?" Stuart appealed to them. "We need to find her!"

"Have you phoned Liza?" Aidan asked. "Maybe she knows where her mother is."

Stuart sighed. "Liza doesn't answer my calls either. I can't even get her voice mail. All I hear is --"

"A hauntingly familiar tune you almost recognize but don't?" Tad checked, beginning to see a pattern.

The phone was ringing.

"I need to hire your Agency," a metallic voice intoned. "People are disappearing."

-------------------------------------

Ryan was sobbing into the couch pillow. "I want my Green Butterfly back!"

They heard a key turning in the front door lock. "Green Butterfly reporting!" the beautiful young woman said. Her curly jet black hair set off her amazing green eyes. She was between 5 feet 8 and 5 feet 9 inches tall.

"Who are you?" Ryan, Kendall and Zach asked her in unison.

"Greenlee Smythe Dupres Lavery," she replied. "But you can call me Gina!"

_Are Liza and Colby victims of whatever all of the rest of the Missing are victims of? Who's next? Who is the caller with the metallic voice and why is he or she hiring all of Pine Valley's Detective Agencies? And who the heck is Gina? Perhaps the answers are in the next chapter! Probably not though. But they will definitely be in SOME chapter! Promise._


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter Five –"Outcasts and Recasts"_

"Mama, I don't think JR is going to fall back in love with me!" Arabella Carey Chandler was confiding to Krystal Carey Chandler at that exact moment. Krystal was busy opening a Swiss on-line bank account, but she always had time to comfort and counsel her only child.

"Don't let JR get you down, Babydoll," Krystal urged her. "Take it from me, there's more than one way to skin a Chandler."

"Skinning him is not exactly what I had in mind," Babe clarified. "Mama, I think I've gone and refallen in love with him! I don't know how or when this started happening, but lately every time I lay eyes on him, I want to jump that boy's bones somethin' fierce!"

This news did not faze Krystal one iota. "Love is in the air, Babydoll. Look at me and Adam! Who would have ever dreamt in a billion years that we were a match? And when I say match, I mean as in fire!"

"Mama, are you telling me that you and Adam are doing it?" Babe asked as delicately as she knew how.

"Boy howdy, are we ever!" Krystal confirmed. "Haven't you noticed how my skin's cleared up?"

"We gotta make us two lists," Opal was telling Tad, Aiden and Stuart. "We gotta list everyone of us who's in danger and everyone of the dang lowdown Newbies we suspect."

"Krystal," Brook said between her teeth.

"She's on List Number Deux, I take it," Tad commented.

Opal was already scribbling furiously on the pad she had found under Aidan's pinball machine.

"Am I on List Number Two too?" a voice asked from the doorway.

"Aidan, we need stronger locks," Tad told his friend, pointedly ignoring Di's question.

"The door wasn't locked, Tad," Di explained, walking into the office.

"And guard dogs," Tad was continuing. "Pit Bulls and Dobermans."

"How flattering," Di said, smiling a smile that didn't make it up to her eyes. "Still mad at me, huh?"

"You got your nerve, Girly!" Opal spat at her. "How dare you show your lying impostering face around here or any place else in this town?"

"You tell her, Mama," a suddenly weary Tad sighed, sinking onto a vacant chair and vacantly staring into space.

"Di, I'd vamoose while the vamoosing is good," Brooke advised her.

Brooke was not as outraged at Dixie's half-sister as her ex-husband was, which was probably due to the fact that she wasn't in love with her. Tad was. Big-time. He hated that she wasn't Dixie and despised her for pretending she was. He couldn't forgive himself for being fooled any more than he could forgive her for fooling him. But none of that compared to the white-hot hatred he felt toward himself for still loving her. For love her he did, no matter how guilty and stupid it made him feel.

"I didn't come here to defend myself," Di told Opal. "I loathe myself more than anyone else does."

"Why are you here, Di?" Aidan asked for them all.

"I'm looking for a job" Di answered. "Nobody will hire me in this town."

"There are other towns," Aidan reminded her.

"And other countries," Tad joined in. "And other universes."

Di ploughed ahead. "I figure you guys need an assistant to help around the office. I can type and take shorthand. I'm good on the phone."

"You've GOT to be kidding!" Tad said to her.

"No, I really have good skills. I took a secretarial course at Statesville. I'll work for minimum wage. Less than minimum wage! What do you say?"

"I say -" Opal began.

"You're hired," Tad decided. "You can start by helping Mama with List Number Two."

"Hey, I'm Number One on List Number Two," Di noticed, looking over Opal's shoulder.

"You got THAT right, you Heartless Hussy from Hell!" Opal muttered with all her heart.

Amanda bit her lip as she rang the front doorbell of the Chandler Mansion.

"Oh, Miss Amanda!" Winifred greeted her. "I don't think anybody here wants to see you!"

Amanda nodded in perfect understanding.

"Winnie, this is an emergency. I've got to see Babe and Krystal! Either one! Both! Don't worry, they'll want to see me when they hear what I've got to say."

Winifred tried her best to be helpful. "Maybe if you tell me first, I'll tell them and we'll see how that goes."

Amanda took a deep breath. "Somebody is out to get rid of all the Newbies!"

Winifred could not help but grin. "Why, that's good news!" she exclaimed.

"Not for me it isn't!" Amanda begged to differ. "And not for Babe or Krystal! We're all Newbies!"

"Well, some of us are Newer Newbies than others of us," Krystal drawled, coming to the door. "Winnie, I thought you threw out the garbage already!"

Winifred got flustered. "Oh, Mrs. Chandler, I didn't mean to talk to- that is, Miss Amanda was only-"

"And some of us are real OLD Newbies," Amanda said cheerfully. "Present company included of course!"

Krystal smiled. "Oh course. Now, Winnie, if you'll just show Miss Amanda to the nearest sewer-"

"You've got to listen to me!" Amanda protested. "Where's Babe? Babe! Babe!"

Amanda pulled free of Winifred's grasp and dodging her way into the parlor, confronted her arch-enemy, Arabella Carey Chandler.

"Babe, they're trying to run us all out of Pine Valley!" she managed before Krystal and Winifred tackled her.

"So what else is new?" Babe asked, staring down at her worst enemy, who was securely pinned to the floor. "They've been trying to get rid of me since I first came here with JR. They write to the Sponsors, e-mail the Network, plot with each other on Message Boards. None of it helps. I am here to stay." She looked down lovingly at Krystal, who was stubbornly sitting on top of a bucking Amanda in order to keep her down. "I am here to stay. And so is my Mama!"

"LISTEN TO ME!" Amanda demanded, trying to breathe despite Krystal's weight on her rear. "The Veterans are banding together. Their first strategy meeting was supposed to be today at Opal's, only that didn't happen because Palmer disappeared."

"Palmer disappeared?" Babe, Krystal and Winifred chorused.

"Lots of Veterans have been disappearing," Amanda wheezed. "Get the hell off of me, and I'll tell you about it!"

They got off of her.

"Something is going on. Palmer is missing."

"You said that already," Krystal said.

"And so is Marian."

"Marian?" Babe, Krystal and Winifred chorused.

"And so is Liza and Colby."

"Liza and Colby?" Adam cried out, coming down the staircase.

"And so is Greenlee!"

"Miss, you aren't Greenlee," Zach was fairly certain. "So who in hades are you?"

Gina opened her purse.

"Here, look if you don't believe me!" she challenged them, handing Kendall her wallet.

All of her credit cards, and there were quite a few, said "Greenlee Lavery". Her social security card said "Greenlee Lavery". Her driver's license said "Greenlee Lavery". Her Voter Registration Card said "Greenlee Lavery".

"Anybody can buy forged papers," Ryan said from experience. "What the hell are these supposed to prove?"

"That I'm your wife!" she laughed, throwing herself into his arms. "Ry, I've thought it all over and had a change of heart! I am willing to give us a second chance!"

Kendall and Zach exchanged glances.

"Recast," Kendall mouthed to him.

"Maybe," Zach said doubtfully. "Ryan, ask her something only Greenlee would know."

Ryan shook his head, as if to clear it. "What are you talking about? This isn't Greenlee!"

Kendall took her friend aside and told him her theory as gently as she knew how. "Ryan, she could be a Recast."

He shook his head again. "No way! They wouldn't do that? How could they do that?"

"They thought I could bring something new to the role," Gina explained coolly.

"Who?" Zach demanded. "Who thought? Who is 'they'?"

"The Powers That Be," Ryan said dully, still not believing the truth of what was right before his eyes.

"The Idiots in Charge," Kendall rephrased, awash with horror and foreboding.

"Rylee lives!" Gina exclaimed.

Kendall's cell phone went off.

"Zendall here," she answered it. It was the metallic voice. She waved Zach over so he could listen in.

"Stop wasting time! Start solving this Mystery! There has been another disappearance!"

"Who?" Kendall asked, afraid to know.

"Myrtle Fargate!" the metallic voice revealed.

Kendall locked on the horror in Zach's eyes.

"We've got to solve this!" he said huskily. "This time it's personal!"

_With both Zendall and Taidan on the case, can a solution be far away? You bet it can! Please come back for more surprises just as soon as I dream them up!_


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter Six – "The Writing Is On the Wall"_

Kendall was unusually quiet on the ride over to the Boarding House, where she and Zach were both intent on finding out what happened to Myrtle. She let him drive her car and spent the time looking out the window on her side, hoping he wouldn't notice how troubled she was.

"Spill it, Lovely," Zach said finally. "What's got you spooked?"

"Spooked?" Kendall echoed. "Well, let's see. People are vanishing, a weird voice on the phone keeps hiring us to figure out why people are vanishing, we keep hearing a hauntingly familiar melody we almost recognize but don't, and somebody I've known and battled with for years was recast with no warning. Spooky enough, for ya?" She stifled a sob, surprised how much she wanted to cry.

"You didn't even get to say good-bye to the Original Greenlee, did you?" Zach asked perceptively.

Miserably, Kendall shook her head, unconsciously making her auburn curls bounce so adorably that Zach nearly went off the road.

"Lovely, they're not going to recast you," he said with some confidence, as he regained control of the car. "Even the Powers That Be aren't that stupid!"

Kendall stifled another sob. "It isn't me that I'm worried about," she admitted in a quiet voice.

Zach laughed as scornfully as he knew how. "Who then? Me? You can't be worried about me, Lovely. Both of us know I'm not worth worrying about."

No part of her wanted to say what had to be said. She said it anyway.

"If they ever recast you, Zach, I'll die."

This time Zach _did_ go off the road.

"You'll WHAT?" he demanded, as they screeched to a stop by a clump of pine trees.. "Kendall, you're not making sense!"

She lowered her suddenly tear-filled eyes, refusing to meet his searching gaze. "I wouldn't want to go on without you, that's all."

"That's not our deal," he heard himself saying. "We're business partners. That's all we ever can be. You know that."

For ten seconds, she studied the leafless pine trees by the side of the road. Finally, she looked her husband-in-name-only square in the eye. "Why do I know that, Zach? Why can't we be more to one another?"

There was a pressure on his chest he might have thought was a heart attack, if he still believed he had a heart. Somehow he had to make her understand how it was with him. "I'm radioactive, Kendall. Through and through. I destroy everything I touch. It's what I do. It's who I am."

"Oh, that's right. I forgot."

She slid into his arms and kissed him like there was no tomorrow.

------------------------------

"Di, Krystal, Amanda, Josh, Dr. Madden, Jonathan, Erin, Babe, JR, Jamie, Julia, Sam, Lily, Zach, " Opal read aloud from List Number Two. "Have I left anyone out?"

"Lily?" Aidan laughed. "Lily's on your list?"

"Nobody is above suspicion," Opal replied darkly.

"Jamie?" Brooke challenged her. "My son, Jamie?

"JR?" Di joined in. "My nephew and almost-son, JR?"

"Your Recast son, Jamie," Opal corrected Brooke, pointedly ignoring Di. "He and Recast JR stay on List No. 2 until we know for certain they're in the clear."

"You suspect Zach?" Aiden asked in surprise.

"I wouldn't put anything passed that lowdown skunk," Opal replied. "He broke up Eddy and Maria's marriage and was the real cause of Eddy's murder, if you stop and think about it."

Nobody in the room wanted to stop and think about Edmund's murder.

"And Babe?" Tad asked wearily.

"Brother-shagging, baby swapping, baby stealing skanky trailer trash," Opal summarized.

"You probably wouldn't put anything past her either, huh, Mama?" Tad checked.

"This town has become a maggot magnet," Opal diagnosed.

Nobody in the room wanted to stop and think about maggots.

"But I top the list," Di announced, if not proudly at least loudly. "And I wasn't sposed to amount to anything in life!"

Nobody laughed or even smiled.

"We don't know that crimes have been committed," Tad reminded them. "All we know is that some of our friends are missing."

"Shouldn't we call Derick?" the chief suspect asked. "In most cases it's been over twenty-four hours. These may be legitimate Missing Persons."

"You're a fine one to use the word 'legitimate'!" Opal scolded Di. "You Pole Dancing Vicious Vixen! You stomped on my poor Tad's heart like it was a doormat! Never mind the damage your masquerade did to JR!"

Tad winced. "That's enough Mama. We can't make the future better by raking over the past."

Di smiled at him. And this time her smile reached all the way up to her shining eyes. "Thank you, Tad," she said, meaning it.

He shrugged. "Don't thank me, honey. And don't get me wrong. Just because I gave you a job, doesn't mean I've forgiven or forgotten. I simply don't want to waste time. This mystery won't solve itself!"

Di nodded. "And the police, Tad? Are you going to call them?"

Somebody was knocking on the door.

It was Derek Frye, Pine Valley's recently recast Chief of Police.

"Myrtle Fargate is missing," he greeted them. "Anybody know anything?"

------------------------------

"Kendall, this won't solve anything," Zach was telling both of them. They were still in the car and still in each other's arms.

"I know," she knew. "You're radioactive and we're only business partners and there can never be anything between us but air." She kissed him again, deeply and passionately, holding him even tighter. "It isn't like I don't know what I'm doing, Zach."

"What are you doing, Kendall?"

"I'm throwing myself at somebody who doesn't want me. And I can't seem to stop."

That did it.

"I don't want you to stop!" he told her because he didn't. "I don't want either one of us to stop! Lord help us, I'm in love you, Kendall Hart. Body and soul."

She thought she was dreaming and wondered why she wasn't waking up.

"Since when?" she whispered, needing to believe him more than she had ever needed anything. "You're in love with me since when, Zach?"

He had no idea, so he took a guess.

"Since always. Since before I knew you existed. Since before either one of us was born. Since before time began."

Now that he had begun to open up to her, the words were pouring out. Too many words. Too many feelings. This was not the time. People were vanishing. Myrtle was missing. Wise, good, Myrtle. She was his only friend, in this vicious little town. Had been from the first. He had to find her. He could lose his mind later. Not now. But he had loved Kendall in silence for so damn long!

"Slater," she was saying with what breath she had left.

"Yes, Kendall?"

She shook her head, making those curls bounce around again. "You called me Kendall Hart. That's wrong."

"Wrong?"

"I'm Kendall Slater."

"Fair enough," he grinned, kissing her lightly to make it official. "Kendall Slater, why don't we get out of this car and go find our friend, Myrtle?"

She nodded. "Sounds good to me!"

------------------------------

"How do you know all these people are missing?" Adam challenged Amanda. "Did you and your Mommy Janet from Another Planet personally do away with them?"

Krystal, Babe and Winifred all turned to Amanda, who had just finished naming each of Pine Valley's Vanished.

"I found a list of names of all the people who have disappeared," Amanda revealed.

"Where the hell did you find that list, Amanda?" JR demanded, coming in from the terrace. "And where the hell is it?"

"At Myrtle's," Amanda replied. "In the kitchen. I had to leave it there."

------------------------------

"This may be a clue," Kendall was remarking to Zach. After untangling themselves from each other, they had walked through the Boarding House's wide open door, hoping they would find Myrtle still alive and well and in her usual good spirits.

Side by side they stood together in Myrtle's kitchen. In front of them was a list of names scrawled in red on the wall.

"Is that blood or ketchup?" Kendall asked, fearing the worst.

------------------------------

_Will Zendall be able concentrate on the Mystery now that they've discovered each other? Will Di and Tad find their way back to each other? What names are scrawled on Myrtle's wall? In blood? Ketchup? Marinara sauce? Tune in for the next exciting episode!_


	7. Chapter 7

_Chapter 7 –" Continued on the Next Wall"_

_Previously: People are disappearing in Pine Valley. So far Palmer, Greenlee, Marian, Liza, Colby and Myrtle all have vanished without a trace. While a hauntingly familiar tune everyone almost recognizes (but doesn't) plays in the background, a mysterious metallic voice on the phone has hired both Tad/Aidan's Agency and Zendall to solve the case. While Zendall is at Myrtle's Boarding House in search of clues, Amanda has invaded the Chandler Mansion with dire warnings about a Veteran Plot to destroy the Newbies. Oh, and Greenlee has been recast. As our latest chapter begins, Opal, Brooke and Stuart are conferring with Tad, Aidan and Di (whom Tad has just hired as his secretary). Derek Frye brings news of Myrtle's disappearance._

"I forgot about you, Derek," Opal told him, consulting her list. "You're a Recast, so you're definitely under a cloud."

"Mazeltov," Tad said to him.

"What cloud? What list? What are you talking about, Opal?"

Tad, Aidan and Brooke took turns explaining to him the nature of the list and the mysterious disappearances that had led to the list's creation, while Stuart sat in a corner missing Marian with all his heart.

"Looks like we're at war," Di commented. "And these folks have you and I, Chief Frye, numbered among the Enemy."

"Well, that's fairly crazy," he murmured, skimming through the list. "Dani?" he howled, when her name jumped out at him. "You think my daughter is involved in all this?"

"We don't know," Tad sighed. "At this point in time, Derek, we don't know who the Bad Guys are."

"And we sure don't know who the Good Guys are either," Di commented.

"Like Hell we don't!" Opal spat out. "All we Vets gotta do now is figure out how to protect who's left of us from the Killer Newbies!"

"Opal, you think Palmer and the others are DEAD?" Brooke gasped, never having considered that possibility.

"To tell you the truth, I don't know what to think," Opal admitted. "But I'm scared stiff, Brooke. Scared stiff!"

------------------------

"I don't think it's written in blood," Zach was telling Kendall, after he rubbed his thumb across a few names on the wall list. "Ketchup maybe." Gingerly, he licked his thumb and made a face. "Nope, not ketchup. Some kind of ink or dye. Maybe crayon. But not blood. You can relax, Lovely."

Kendall relaxed, but not much. "Look at that handwriting, Zach! It's moronic!"

He squinted in thought as he studied the jagged, uneven lettering. "Moronic, maybe. Or else somebody wants us to think they're moronic. In which case it's genius."

She considered that. "You're guessing it was purposefully scrawled that way to throw us off the track." She frowned. "But we're not even on a track! Why should all these people be vanishing without a trace?"

------------------------

"You couldn't bring the list with you because it was written on a wall?" JR repeated, to make sure he had heard Amanda correctly. "On a _wall_, Amanda?"

She nodded. "The list of the people who have gone missing is written on Myrtle's kitchen wall. But I care way more about the conspiracy to do away with US."

Babe answered JR's wide-eyed look of confusion. "Amanda thinks all the Newcomers to Pine Valley are in danger. She thinks we're being plotted against by the Veterans."

JR begin making small circles at his temple with his index finger.

"I'M NOT CRAZY!" Amanda shouted. "The Veterans are coming after us!"

Adam saw an obvious inconsistency in Amanda's theory. "But it's Veterans who are disappearing. That's what you told us, Amanda."

"And it's true!" Amanda cried out in complete frustration. "But the thing is, I think somebody is kidnapping the Veterans so it looks like the Newbies are to blame! They're framing us!"

Adam begin making small circles at his temple with his index finger.

JR strode toward the door. "I'm going to Myrtle's place. I gotta see this wall for myself!"

------------------------

"Do you still not want a baby, Ryan?" the new Greenlee was asking.

Ryan was still lying face-down on the couch. The new Greenlee had begun tidying up the penthouse, picking up empty beer cans and empty cartons of take-out where she found them, which was almost everywhere she looked.

"Listen to me, Gina," he began softly. "LISTEN TO ME. You are not my Greenlee. You are nothing like my Greenlee. You are a stranger to me, lady."

"Ryan, move your caboose and help me with this vacuum cleaner. And then we'll care about what a stranger I am to you!"

There was something achingly familiar in the tone of this strange woman's voice.

"Greenlee?" Ryan whispered, raising his head an inch.

"Not yet," Gina answered, a look of steely determination on her beautiful face. "But I'll get there!" She started the vacuum cleaner. "Now move your rear, Ryan! I mean it! This pigsty isn't going to clean itself!"

------------------------

"What is that written on the bottom?" Kendall asked Zach, after they had taken turns reciting the names of the Missing, i.e., Palmer, Greenlee, Marian, Liza, Colby, and Myrtle.

Zach squinted. "Whatever it is, it's in parenthesis."

Kendall moved closer to the wall until she could easily make out the scrawled words.

"Continued on the next wall," she read aloud. "Omigod, Zach! There are more names on another wall! But these are all the people who we know are missing! What could be written on the other wall?"

"And where is the other wall?" Zach wondered.

They decided to search the Boarding House. When all the walls on the first floor were checked and found unscrawled upon, they climbed the stairs to the bedrooms above.

"Um, Zach, before we look in any of the bedrooms, we have to make each other a promise."

They were climbing the stairs together, more than halfway there.

"Promise, Lovely?" he inquired. "For better or for worse? For richer or for poorer? Didn't we promise that already?"

"We are about to go into bedrooms, Zach," she explained. "Bedrooms. Promise me, we'll stay out of all the beds."

"All of them, huh?" he asked.

She nodded solemnly. "Each and everyone."

"Well, that's okay," he assured her. "I'm not sleepy anyway. Are you?"

------------------------

Erica Kane's cell phone went off like a bomb smack in the middle of the "New Beginnings" weekly staff meeting.

"I can't talk now," she told it cheerfully. "Please call back when I can!"

"Erica! Are you safe?" the voice on the other end demanded.

"Opal, is that you?" Erica demanded in turn. "What's wrong? You sound awful!"

"Girlfriend, you've got to get yourself over to Tad and Aidan's right now! You are in mortal danger! And call Jack! He's in mortal danger too! Tad just tried to call Joe and Ruth, and all he got on the line was a hauntingly familiar tune we almost recognized but didn't!"

------------------------

"It's another list," Zach decided, when they had reached the fourth bedroom (and had successfully stayed out of all of the beds). "More names."

Silently, they began to read.

"My Mother is on that list," Kendall realized in cold panic.

But Zach saw another name that hit him even harder.

_Joe and Ruth added to the Vanished? Who's next? What name did Zach see on the bedroom wall? More will be revealed (and concealed) in the next chapter! BTW reviews help me. And I need a lot of help! LOL!_


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter Eight – "Suspicion Can Replace Adoration When the Writing's on the Wall"_

_Previously: Zendall has discovered two lists in Myrtle's Boarding House. The lists are written in red, one on the kitchen wall, and the other on a wall in one of the bedrooms. One list lists the names of the Already Vanished and the other list lists the names of the To Be Vanished. Amanda is still confronting Adam, Krystal and Babe with her theory of Newbie persecution. Tad has hired Di to be his and Aidan's secretary and Ryan is getting used to the new Greenlee. As our latest chapter opens, Opal is on the phone, trying to convince Erica that they are nothing, if not in a jam of epic proportions._

Erica Kane was at a loss. Being at a loss was a new experience for Erica, and she was certain at once that she did not like it one bit.

"Opal, I can't just leave a Staff --"

"Get yourself here, Girlfriend! And bring that husband of yours! I'm tellin' ya, they're after us all, and not one of us is safe!"

"Can't you call Myrtle?" she tried. "I can come over later, but in the meantime --"

"Myrt's gone missing! Half the town has gone missing! Erica, wake up and smell the decaf! We are in crisis mode! Our lives are at stake! Condition Red! GET OVER HERE, GIRLFRIEND, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!"

Erica frowned. Opal sounded wilder than wild, which told her that something was wronger than wrong.

"Val, cancel all my appointments, and call Jack. Tell him to meet me at Tad and Aidan's office."

--

"My name is on the list, Zach," Kendall was saying softly, as if he couldn't see that, as if seeing it wasn't making him feel sick and scared. "Big as life and clear as day."

The List of the Soon to Be Gone read as follows:

Adam Chandler  
Stuart Chandler  
Opal Cortlandt  
Aidan Devane  
Brooke English  
David Hayward  
Erica Kane  
Ryan Lavary  
Tad Martin  
Jackson Montgomery  
Julia Santos  
Kendall Hart Slater  
Simone Torres

Zach took her in his arms, turning her away from the wall. "It's only some lunatic's plan, Lovely. Nothing has happened yet. I'll keep you safe. That's my job."

Kendall buried her face in his chest, and wished she could stay in his arms forever. Then she had an unfortunate thought.

"Zach, your name isn't on the wall. Either wall."

He kissed her check, and grinned.. "So what does that make me? A Suspect?"

She stepped away from him. "You're a Newbie. That's why you're not listed on either wall. Newbies and Recasts aren't listed."

He didn't like the look in her beautiful eyes, which had narrowed decidedly. Suspicion had suddenly replaced adoration.

"Kendall, be real! I'm not involved in any of this. You think I could ever hurt Myrtle? Or your Mother? Or you?"

Kendall looked down at the floor. "You said it yourself. You're radioactive."

Gently, Zach lifted her chin until their gazes met. "And what about you, Kendall? Could you be in love with a lunatic who makes people disappear and writes about it on walls?"

"You wouldn't be the first lunatic I've been in love with," she told him ruefully.

--

Di was trying to fit into her new workplace. Doing so, under the best of circumstances would have been challenging, considering her history with Tad. Doing so in the present atmosphere of crisis was somewhere beyond impossible.

"Why isn't she in handcuffs?" Opal was asking Tad.

"Opal, Di hasn't done anything wrong!" Brooke spoke up. "Recently. That we know of."

"Thank you, Brooke," Di thanked her. "I think."

"Opal, I don't think we should fight among ourselves," Stuart added. He was desolate as a result of Marian's disappearance. He yearned to be able to do something, but he had no idea what to do. He wished he was a Man of Action, like Adam. Or Aidan. Or Tad.

"This isn't fighting among ourselves, Stuart," Opal replied in her own defense. "That bleached blonde ex-con isn't one of us!"

"Opal's right," Di said quickly. "I wish she weren't. But she is." "They hate me," Di thought. "Through and through and forever and ever. And they don't even know the rest of it. Wait till they find out." She stared glumly at Tad. "Wait till _he_ finds out!"

--

"Do you honestly imagine you can get away with this?" Adam was asking Amanda, in his most strident and accusatory tone. "You can't do away with half of Pine Valley and then blame it on the victims!"

Adam had just gotten off the phone with his brother, Stuart, who confirmed sadly that Marian, Liza and Colby were indeed among the missing.

"Adam, we don't know for sure that Ms. Wacko did away with anybody," Krystal said, giving Amanda the benefit of the doubt, in spite of herself.

"You're only saying that because you're a Newbie," Adam retorted. "You and your Babydoll are as Newbie as they come!"

Babe laughed out loud. "Is Little Adam a Newbie too, Adam?"

"Of course not!" Adam replied at once. "Little A is a Chandler!"

"Well, I'm a Chandler too!" Krystal exclaimed. "And I ain't doin' away with nobody! Not even you!"

Adam glowered. "I wouldn't put it past either of you."

"We love you too, Adam," Babe smiled at him. "Now Amanda, why are you still here?

--

Tad was rattled. After Derek left, promising to put every cop he had on the investigation, Tad tried getting in touch with Joe. Then with Ruth. Even the voice mails on their cells weren't working. All he got when he tried to leave a message, was that same haunting tune everybody got when they tried to leave a message for one of the Vanished.

"There has to be a logical explanation," Di insisted hopefully. "Chief Frye seemed to betaking all of this seriously. I'm sure he'll find something out soon. Tad, where are you going?"

He was putting on his coat and heading for the door. "I'm going to go look for a logical explanation. Wanna come along? Bring something to write on. You can take notes."

She didn't have to be asked twice. "I'm with you, Boss!"

"Tad! Where are you going with that criminal?" Opal cried out. "Erica and Jack are on their way over!"

"Fish and Chips, you fill in Erica and Jack," Tad requested Aidan. "I'm gonna check on my folks."

Aidan nodded, relieved to see his friend back in action. "Just watch your back," he cautioned.

"Don't worry, I've got his back," Di told them all.

"That's what we're afraid of!" Opal said.

--

After a brief tour of the premises, JR found Kendall and Zach in one of Myrtle's vacant bedrooms, staring at a wall.

"That's what Amanda was talking about," he realized. "Look at all those names! Is that everybody who's vanished?"

"There's another wall in the kitchen," Kendall told him. "More names. Same idiotic handwriting. The other wall lists all the people who have already disappeared, and I guess this lists the victims still to come. You're not on either wall, JR."

He raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not on either wall either, Junior," Zach offered. "It's because we're both Newbies."

"I'm not a Newbie," JR made clear. "I'm a Recast."

Zach shrugged. "Either way, you're in the clear, and under a cloud all at the same time."

"No," Kendall spoke up. "I don't suspect JR. He isn't part of this."

Zach felt stung to the core. "And I am?"

Suddenly Kendall was drowning in a sea of panic. "JR, please take me home!" she begged him. "I can't deal with this anymore today!"

"Kendall, wait!" Zach implored her, as she took JR's arm.

Tears streaming down her beautiful, miserable face, Kendall looked back at Zach and then at the wall that foretold her future. She blinked. Erica's name was not on that wall anymore. Neither was Jack's.

"This can't be happening!" she gasped, running from the room.

Zach and JR chased her, not knowing why she was running away. The chase ended in the kitchen.

"Mother and Jack are on _this_ wall now," Kendall pointed out, her voice shaking with horror. "They aren't on the wall upstairs anymore that lists the Future Vanished. That means they've already disappeared, doesn't it?"

JR was speechless.

"It doesn't have to mean that, Kendall," Zach managed. "Let's call Erica. Let's --'"

"Zach, what have you done with my Mother?" Kendall screamed at him.

--

NuGreenlee was busily cleaning the penthouse and, not knowing what else to do, Ryan was helping her.

"Ry, look what I found!"

NuGreenlee handed Ryan some stapled pages she had found under the sofa. "What is it, do you suppose?

"It looks like a script," he said, turning pages. "OMIGOD!"

_Are Erica and Jack missing? Does Kendall really think Zach is behind the disappearances? Could she be right? What will Tad and Di find out as they begin their investigation? What hasn't Di told Tad yet? What has NuGreenlee found under the couch? Questions, questions, questions! When will we start getting some answers? Don't ask me! Please come back for the next thrilling installment! Reviews are treasured!_


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter Nine – "Luckily, Roller Coasters Are His Thing"_

_Previously: At Myrtle's Boardinghouse Zendall discovers two walls, one worse than the other. The wall in the kitchen lists everybody who has vanished. The wall in one of the bedrooms lists everybody who is going to vanish. Kendall Hart Slater is listed on the To Be Gone wall, as is her Mother and Jackson Montgomery. At least Erica's and Jack's names were on that wall when Kendall and Zach first looked at it. When they weren't looking, somehow both names disappeared and appeared on the Already Gone wall. JR joins Zendall just in time for Kendall to beg him to take her away from Zach, whom she almost suspects is behind the mystery. Meanwhile, Tad and Di are launching their own investigation, Amanda is still at Casa Chandler where she is absolutely unwanted by all, and NuGreenlee has discovered some sort of a script while cleaning up the Penthouse._

Ryan could not believe what he was reading.

"What it is, Ryan? NuGreenlee asked him. "Next week's script? Don't they usually mail it or messenger it over or something?"

"Greenlee, this is the Answer!" Ryan told her, excitement dancing in his eyes. "This is the blueprint! This says who dunnit!"

--

"Kendall thinks I've made off with her Mother and Stepfather along with most of Pine Valley," Zach summarized to JR, who couldn't take his eyes off of the kitchen wall.

"I want a look at the other wall again," JR decided, trying to remember if his Father's name had been on it.

"Please, JR," I can't stand this! Please take me away!"

Kendall was thoroughly unstrung. The thought of Erica missing filled her with panic. And the suspicion that Zach had something to do with all of this was killing her.

"Why do you suspect me, Kendall?" he asked her pointblank. "Because I love you and you can't tolerate that?"

That hit her as hard as he meant it to hit her. "No," she said, trying to work it out. "No, that's not why. I'm happy you love me, Zach. I love you. I've loved you for such a long time. I was the one who pushed us to admit our true feelings. It's just that none of this makes any sense!"

Zach nodded solemnly. "And that being the case, you naturally suspect me of being the guilty culprit. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Lovely."

Because he knew that Kendall had severe trust issues, he tried not to feel overly injured by her sudden lack of faith in him. Or was it so sudden?

"You didn't trust me before today, did you Kendall?" he asked quietly. "Not that you should have. I'm a pretty untrustworthy sort, all in all."

She scowled at him. "Don't make this about me. It's about the fact that everyone I care about in Pine Valley is vanishing without a trace."

"I care about some of those people too, Kendall," he reminded her gently.

Her head was beginning to ache. She looked around for JR, but he had left to go look at the other wall.

"I can't do this now, Zach," she said, running out of the kitchen. "I need to find JR." She tried not to scream. "I need to find my Mother!"

--

After visiting Pine Valley Hospital and the Martin home, Tad accepted the impossible-to-accept fact that his parents had totally disappeared. Di tried to keep his spirits up as they drove aimlessly around Pine Valley.

"They must be somewhere, Tad," she tried. "Everybody must be somewhere. They couldn't have been beamed up by a UFO."

Tad grimaced. "UFO abduction. Put that down on our Theory List. I wonder if any crop circles have been sighted around here."

"You're kidding!" Di wanted to believe.

But Tad didn't look like he was kidding. "I'm fresh out of logical explanations, so bring on the Twilight Zone!"

"You know. Tad, sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction." The truth she was referring to was that his wife Dixie was still alive, which Tad didn't know because Di had given her word to Dixie that she wouldn't tell him or anybody else. But that promise wasn't the only reason Di hadn't told Tad the truth. She knew she'd lose him forever if he knew. And she wasn't ready to lose him forever. Particularly since she hadn't gotten him back yet after he and everybody else in town had found out she wasn't Dixie.

"The truth is that I haven't got a clue about what's really going on," Tad muttered, as if he were reading Di's mind, which she prayed he wasn't.

"Tad, that tune everybody hears when they try to call a person who's disappeared. That's got to be a clue. What does it sound like? Can you hum it for me?"

Tad did his best, but Di couldn't tell if he was humming "Battle Hymn of the Republic" or "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

"Why I don't try to call your parents so I can hear it for myself?" she suggested.

"Okay, here," he said handing her his cell, after he punched in the Martins' home phone number.

Di listened and nearly forgot to breathe.

"Let's pay Dereck a visit!" Tad suggested, not noticing Di's reaction to the tune. "Maybe he's come up with something."

Wordlessly, Di nodded and handed the cell phone back to Tad.

--

Kendall found JR in the bedroom, staring at the Wall of Vanished to Come.

"Is your Father listed?" she asked him, preferring not to look herself.

JR nodded grimly. "And my Uncle Stuart."

Kendall shrugged philosophically. "Uncle Stuart? Well, at least I'll have somebody worth talking to when I disappear."

JR looked at her and he wasn't even smiling.

"I'm sorry, JR. I only said that because I'm so scared. Sometimes when I'm scared, I get stupid."

She collapsed into his open arms.

"Oh, JR, what are we going to do?"

JR had no idea, so he kissed Kendall. And, equally all at sea, Kendall kissed him back.

--

"Amanda, if you don't get the hell out of here by the count of three, I'm calling what we laughingly call the police."

Amanda didn't even blink. "I come over here to tell you what your wife and daughter-in-law are up against, and you want to have me arrested. Typical. You wouldn't be treating me like this if I weren't a Newbie!"

"Actually, Adam has a pretty good idea, Amanda," Babe told her. "Why don't we all go over to the police station and find out what Dereck knows about all the disappearances?"

"Good idea, Babydoll," Krystal said, getting their coats.

"Waste of time," Adam muttered as he followed the three of them out. "Bloody waste of time."

--

Ryan and NuGreenlee were just coming out of Dereck's office when Tad and Di arrived

"Tad!" Ryan greeted him. "We've solved it!"

Tad's eyes narrowed. "That's swell. Who's the brunette?"

"Oh, that's Greenlee," Ryan replied. "She's come back to me."

Di looked confused. "Tad, that isn't –"

"Recast," he whispered to her. "It happens sometimes."

Di shuddered.

--

Kendall gently pushed JR away. The kiss was sweet enough. JR was a sweet boy. And she had always loved him, in her way. It was always so simple between them. Falling in bed without falling in love. Pleasure without pain. Buddy sex. That used to be fine with her. Used to be.

"What's the matter, Kendall?"

"People are disappearing," she replied, knowing JR had asked a different question.

"Kendall, what is it?" he persisted.

"Nothing!" she insisted, wondering why that wonderful kiss had felt so completely wrong. "Nothing! But, well, I'm a married woman, JR."

"In name only," he recalled for them both. "Kendall, has anything changed between you and Zach?"

"Several times," she answered.

"Omigod, tell me you didn't go and fall in love with that sonovabitch!" JR cried out, really annoyed.

"You fell in love with Babe," Kendall said in her own defense. "Twice. You know how it is."

JR hugged her hard, wishing with all his battered heart that he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Zach and I can touch without touching," Kendall was going on, as if JR wanted to hear what she was saying. "All we have to do is be in the same room. It's the craziest thing. I can feel the heat from 20 feet away. It's like he's projecting some sort of force field. Even when we're not together, I can still feel him."

JR stopped hugging her. "Shouldn't you be telling stuff like this to a girlfriend?"

"Why would I need girlfriends when I have you?" Kendall teased him.

--

"Have there been any further developments?" Adam demanded when he arrived at the Police Station.

"Now my day is perfect," Chief Frye replied. "Get out of my police station, Chandler! And take the rest of this bunch with you!"

"Adam, Ryan has found a clue!" Di exclaimed, ignoring Dereck's remark. "We may know who's responsible for all of this!"

"But we can't be certain," Tad cautioned. Ryan had shown him the script, and he wasn't happy with what he had read.

"We can be pretty certain," NuGreenlee differed.

"Who are you, Miss?" Adam asked her.

"Zach did it!" Ryan crowed, waving the script above his head. "I gotta find Kendall! She's got to know! Zach is behind everything!"

--

When Kendall and JR came back into the kitchen, it wasn't empty, which surprised her. But in a good way.

"You waited," she said to Zach.

"You're surprised?" JR asked her sourly. "Didn't you feel the heat from 20 feet away?"

"I'll always wait for you," Zach told her because he always would.

It was then that the dam broke but good.

"I'm so stupid!" Kendall cried out, throwing herself in Zach's general direction. He caught her easily and held her tightly against him while she sobbed.

"You're not stupid," he disagreed. "You're extremely bright. How could I be madly in love with a stupid woman?"

"I'm in this room, you two," JR said loudly.

"Maybe not stupid," Kendall sniffed. "But definitely deranged. Look who I almost threw away."

He smiled down at her. "You can't throw me away, Lovely. I'll always bounce back to you. Don't you know that by now?"

"I can't stand this," JR said. But nobody was listening.

"You'll walk away from me one day, Zach," Kendall predicted in a low voice. "When I make you mad enough, when I do something unforgivable, you'll stop loving me. You'll figure out I'm not worth it, and you'll walk away from me. And you won't turn back."

He laughed at that.

"I can't stop loving you, Kendall. Believe me, I've tried. Can't be done."

That got her attention. "You've tried to stop loving me already? Why did you try to stop loving me?"

That was easy to answer. "You're not exactly a walk in the park, Lovely. More like a roller coaster ride. Luckily, roller coasters happen to my thing."

"That's supposed to make me feel better?" she asked although somehow it did.

"Kendall, look at me."

She left his arms long enough to look into his eyes, his tragic, beautiful eyes. Only they didn't look so tragic right then. They look determined.

"I am in this for the distance," he told her, willing her to believe him. "That means forever. I can't be voted off the island. We are for keeps."

She nodded, completely under his spell.

"Until he makes you vanish, Kendall," JR predicted heartlessly, breaking the spell completely.

_Mother of Mercy, will Ryan's revelation be the end of Zendall? Again? And for how long this time? What does the script NuGreenlee found say, and how does it implicate Zach? Did Di recognize the haunting tune everybody almost recognizes but doesn't? Will Tad ever get a clue? Tune in for our next exciting chapter! Your review would be cherished!_


	10. Chapter 10

_Chapter Ten – "The Script"_

_Previously: While Zendall and JR are still at Myrtle's Boardinghouse, Tad, Di, Adam, Krystal, Babe and Amanda have made their way to the Pine Valley Police Department, where they discover Ryan and the Recast Greenlee have given Chief Frye a script which may solve the Mystery of the Missing. Or it may not._

Glowing, Ryan handed over to Adam the script NuGreenlee had found in the Penthouse.

"You'll love this, Adam. It's what that maniac Slater has planned for all of us!" He eyed Babe, Krystal, Amanda, Di, his own Recast wife and Derek Frye. "Well, nearly all of us. Here I marked the scene you should read. It isn't my favorite, but it's pretty great."

First with disbelief and then apprehension growing on their faces, Babe, Krystal and Amanda stood on tip-toe and read over Adam's shoulder as he silently read and methodically turned the pages.

_Scene: The basement of Zach's Casino. The leading citizens of Pine Valley are tied to folding chairs while Zach Slater stands before them outlining his Master Plan._

_Zach: You all die and I take over._

_Adam: You can't run this town by yourself, Slater. You're only one man._

_Zach: Who said I'll be alone? I'll have the other Newbies and Recasts to help. Babe, and Krystal and Amanda and Lily and Jonathan and Erin and Josh Madden and Greg Madden and Di and whoever else gets hired to liven up Pine Valley after I dispose of all of you dead wood._

"I told you they were out to get us!" Amanda yelled out. "That phony baloney script implicates us Newbies!"

"In the first place, Amanda, you're not a Newbie," Ryan pointed out calmly. "You're a Recast. Like Greenlee."

NuGreenlee waved at Amanda.

"And in the second place," Ryan continued, "why would you assume it isn't genuine?"

"Why would you assume it is?" she shot back. "Because you're not a Newbie! Or a Recast! That's why!"

Adam shushed Amanda and continued reading.

_Kendall: Zach! Have you gone completely mad? Why have you kidnapped everybody? Why are you planning to get rid of all of us?_

_Zach: I'd tell you, Kendall, but you're too stupid to understand._

_David: I know why he's done it, Kendall. Power. The lust for absolute power. Something I understand all too well. Now nothing and nobody stands in his way. And yes, Kendall, you ARE too stupid to understand._

_Aidan: You'll never get away with this, Slater. _

_Tad: He's right, Zach. The Fans will never tolerate an all-Newbie cast._

_Zach: My Fans won't mind all that much. Besides, the cast won't be all Newbies. They'll be a couple of Recasts to keep the continuity. Such as your revamped wife, Ryan. The beautiful brunette recast Greenlee. The soon-to-be Widow Lavery. Who knows? I might give her a whirl. I always liked brunettes._

_Kendall: What the --?_

_Julia: I'm brunette, Zach. Why not keep me in town?_

_Kendall: Tramp!_

_Zach: Julia, you know Maria would never forgive me for taking up with her sister._

_Julia: You think Maria will forgive you for knocking off her sister?_

_Zach: I'm not gonna tell her. And neither will any of you._

_Ryan: You'll never get away with this, Slater. _

_Zach: Tad and Aidan said that already. All three of you are wrong. Who's gonna stop me?_

_Brooke: But why get rid of us, Zach? We're no threat to you. You're front-burner all the way. I've been so back-burnered, I'm practically off the damn stove! _

_Zach: I can't take any chances, Brooke. Nothing personal._

"How do we know this script is the real deal?" Tad asked Ryan, still not convinced it was. "Anybody could have written this, including your Recast better half, who allegedly found it."

"Allegedly, my eye!" NuGreenlee cried out in her own defense. "I _did_ find it! And as far as Ry and I know, it's absolutely genuine! Besides, why would I write such a thing? It makes Recasts and Newbies possible Suspects right along with Zach. Why on earth would I make myself a Suspect?"

"Who is she again?" Adam asked Krystal.

"Let's get back to that script," Krystal urged.

"Oh, the next part is about my family!" Adam said, choking up slightly.

_Stuart: Zach, you've got to listen to that quiet voice inside of you telling you to do the right thing!_

_Zach: That isn't what the quiet voice inside of me says, Stuart._

_Liza: Mother, what does Zach Slater have against Colby and me? We don't even live in Pine Valley anymore!_

_Marian: I don't know, Liza. But Zach's done more than his share of horrible things in this town. He seems capable of anything. Did you know he took Maria away from Edmund?_

_Simone: And denied his son!_

_Colby: Should I even be here? I thought they were going to SORAS me and bring me back as a teenager!_

Meanwhile Ryan was finding it impossible to believe the others' disbelief. "You people floor me! This is the first real clue we've had! Why isn't Slater being picked up for questioning?"

Dereck spoke up at once. "Stop trying to do my job, Lavery."

"Somebody should." Adam said dryly. He went back to the script.

_Joe: Don't be afraid, Ruth. Things have a way of turning out right as rain._

_Ruth: Since when?_

_Myrtle: Zach, Dahlin', this is so unlike you. You've always been a bit of a bad boy, but not this bad! Come to your senses before it's too late._

_Zach: Sorry, Myrtle. Not a chance. If it makes you feel any better though, I liked you the best._

_Kendall: Her? You liked her the best? Zach, you swore you loved me!_

_Zach: I did love you. But I never liked you._

"Adam, don't turn the page so fast!" Krystal whispered to him. "Okay. Go ahead."

"Not yet!" Babe called out. "Okay, go ahead. Amanda, are you caught up?"

"I've read enough," Amanda said mournfully.

"Suit yourself," Adam said, turning the page.

_Erica: Stronger, smarter, eviler men than you have tried to get the better of me, Zach Slater! What makes you dream you can succeed where so many, many, many others before you have failed so miserably and so frequently?_

_Opal: Come to think of it, what makes you think you can get the better of any of us? Have you even half an idea how much all of us have lived through on this Show? How much all of us have overcome? Palmer, you tell him!_

_Palmer: Slater, as Villains go, you measure up as less than a grain of sand on the Sahara. I have survived ex-wives, bankruptcy and worse. Ever work in a fast-food chicken place, Slater?_

_David: My own Mother turned out to be a Drug Kingpin! I mop for a living! You think you can beat me, Slater? You think you can beat any of us?_

_Zach: Definitely. For one thing I've managed to get you all here, tied up and at my mercy. And for another thing, as soon as I say "buh-buh" and take my leave, massive quantifies of carbon monoxide will be pumped in here through that grate over there. See it, folks? Yes, that one._

_Jack: You'll never get away with this, Slater._

_Zach: Yeah, that's what they all say._

"This isn't half-bad," Krystal mused. "It has a cliff-hanger and everything."

"Easy for you to say when I'm one of the ones hanging off that cliff," Adam said stiffly, handing the script back to Ryan, who was still glowing.

"Looks bad for Slater," Adam observed.

"And not too much better for us," Krystal added with a sigh. "It puts all of us Newbies and Recasts under a cloud!"

Tad had heard more than enough to send him toward the door and out of there.

"Where are we going, Boss?" Di inquired, following him.

"The basement of Zach's Casino," Tad answered her.

"Tad, you think your Mom and Dad are there?" Di asked him. "You believe that Script?"

Tad shook his head. "Di, I don't know what to believe anymore. And I haven't for a long, long time!"

"What happens in the rest of the Script, Ryan?" Krystal asked him after Tad and Di left. "We only read that one scene."

"The rest is standard JR/Babe love-hate-love. They aren't Zach's prisoners because Babe is a Newbie and JR is a Recast."

"In the Script, is anybody trying to solve the mystery of where all the people are that Zach is holding?" Babe asked.

"Another Newbie and another Recast begin investigating," Ryan replied with a smile that nobody understood..

"Which Recast?" Amanda demanded, hoping it was her.

"Sorry, Amanda," Ryan answered, guessing her hope. "Believe it or not, in the script, the two detectives hot on the case are Lily Montgomery and my brother, Jonathan!"

_Jily are the on the case in the Script? Only in the Script? What (and who) will Di and Tad find in the basement of Zach's Casino? How will Zendall react when Ryan shows them the Script? For some of the answers to these annoying questions, please read on! _


	11. Chapter 11

_Chapter Eleven – "Jily Joins In"_

_Previously – Ryan has passed the Script around to Derek, Adam, Krystal, Babe, Amanda, Tad and Di. It clearly implicates Zach in the disappearances. Some believe it. Some don't. A skeptical Tad and Di are on their way over to check out the basement of Zach's Casino while JR goes home and Zendall heads back to their office. Lily and Jonathan are meeting in their tree house, unaware that in the Script they are investigating the Mystery._

Lily waited patiently for Jonathan to join her in their tree house. When he didn't come by five minutes after the time they had agreed to meet, she began to worry that he had vanished along with her Father and Erica. So she was overjoyed when he appeared, grinning his grin.

"Why are you happy, Jonathan?" she greeted him.

"Because I'm seeing you," he replied at once. "Seeing you makes me happy, Lily."

His answer made Lily smile too, although she knew that smiling was the last thing either of them should be doing.

"Jonathan, we need to solve this mystery," she told him earnestly. "We have to find my Dad and Erica and all the other people who have disappeared. I think we should begin our own investigation."

Jonathan nodded solemnly. "But, Lily, aren't the Police already trying to find everybody whose missing? Wouldn't our investigation get in their way?"

"I'm better at solving mysteries than the Police," Lily knew for certain. "Ask anyone."

-------------------------------------

Tad and Di arrived at the Casino at the height of Happy Hour.

"How are we going to get into the basement?" Di asked Tad after they had made their way through the noisy crowd of gamblers to a semi-quiet spot.

"I'm an expert at covert entry," he replied confidently. "Basements happen to be my specialty."

"That's comforting," she commented, not sounding in the least comforted.

He gave her a withering look. "We create a diversion. Watch and learn, Watson!"

"Who's Watson?" she asked him.

"Doctor Watson was Sherlock Holmes' assistant," he explained with a straight face. "You are my assistant. Hence I refer to you as Watson."

"Do I look like Doctor Watson?" she asked him.

"Prettier," he told her. "But you're still Doctor Watson to me."

She thought that through.

"So that makes you Sherlock Holmes?" she hooted.

"If you weren't so beautiful, I'd be highly insulted," he told her, appreciating how beautiful she was for the first time since he found out she wasn't Dixie. "Kindly stop laughing at me."

Di couldn't stop laughing so Tad went forward with his plan.

"Thief!" he began to scream lustily. "Security! That man ran off with my wallet!"

Security seemed oblivious to Tad's lusty screams.

"I don't think they heard you, Sherlock."

"If I scream any louder, I'll wake the dead."

Di frowned, remembering one dead person who wasn't as dead as everybody thought she was.

"Should I give it a try?" she asked him.

He gave her another withering look.

"Masher!" Di screamed. "Masher! Takes your hands off of me! Help! Help!"

Twenty-six security guards surrounded her almost immediately, giving Tad his opportunity to invade the Casino's basement in search of the Vanished.

-------------------------------------

Zach and Kendall headed back to their office as dispirited as they were crazy in love with each other. They had already left messages for the people listed on the bedroom wall at Myrtle's, the About to be Vanished. Nobody had answered their phone, which worried them.

"I am so tired of hearing that stupid song," Kendall sighed. "I still can't place it."

"Cheer up, Lovely," Zach tried, dropping down on the couch. "We'll find them all. Everybody's got to be someplace. For instance, your place is with me. My place is with you."

"Forever," she affirmed.

"So there's nothing to worry about, Mrs. Slater" he concluded.

Mrs. Slater wasn't so sure.

"Zach, there are forces at work here that I don't understand. How could names disappear from one wall and appear on another wall all by themselves?"

Zach shrugged. "Invisible ink," he suggested. "Somebody could have timed out the whole thing. Why not?"

Kendall laughed and plopped down on his lap. "Why not indeed? How'd you get so smart?"

"Not so smart," he smiled up at her. "Just incredibly lucky."

"Your luck has run out, Slater!" a booming voice at the door told Zendall in no uncertain terms.

-------------------------------------

When JR got back to the Mansion, his family and Amanda had just gotten back from the police station. Quickly, they filled JR in about the Script and how it implicated Zach.

"I gotta go tell Kendall," he realized. "She's with that fiend!"

"Don't worry, JR," Babe soothed him. "Ryan and Dereck are on their way now to arrest him. He won't get away with anything!"

"I don't believe that Script for a second," Amanda told them flatly, although nobody had asked her. "I think it was planted to throw suspicion on the Newbies and Recasts. We're being set up."

-------------------------------------

Jonathan and Lily decided the first stop on their Investigation should be to check in with Tad/Aidan.

"Aidan was my first boyfriend," Lily confided to Jonathan on their way there. "But it wasn't serious. Not like us."

"Did you love him?" Jonathan asked her haltingly.

Lily shook her head in an extremely negative fashion. "I've never been in love." She regretted saying that when she saw the effect her words had on Jonathan. "But if I were in love, Jonathan, it would definitely be with you."

Jonathan frowned. "You don't have to be in love with me just because I want you to be, Lily."

"I know," she knew. "But I'm pretty sure I'm almost there."

Lily knocked at the door of Tad/Aidan's Agency, but nobody answered.

"Nobody's home, I guess," Jonathan told her. "Maybe they're out investigating the disappearances."

"Maybe," Lily said doubtfully. "Let's go see Zendall."

-------------------------------------

From the empty basement of Zach's Casino, Tad was calling his office. All he got was his machine.

"Aidan and the others should still be there," he told Di, real worry stabbing him. "I told everybody to stay put. Didn't I tell everybody to stay put? Well, I meant to tell everybody to stay put."

Di looked on as Tad methodically tried calling Aidan, Brooke, Opal and Stuart. Nobody answered but their voice mails.

"I'm so sick of hearing that damn song," Tad said to Di. "I still can't place it."

Di placed it all right. She wondered why Tad couldn't.

"You should call Dereck and tell him this place is deserted," Di advised. "Do you think that means the Script is a red herring?"

"I don't know what it means," Tad sighed because he didn't. "I don't know what anything means anymore. Let's go look at Myrtle's walls. The Script said two of the walls were lists of the already vanished and about to be vanished."

"Tad, there's something I need to tell you," Di said to him, knowing she should have told him before.

"You know where my family and friends are?" Tad asked without much hope.

"No, but that song may be a clue. And I recognize it."

"Spill it, Watson," Tad commanded, wondering why he was afraid to know. "It may be important."

-------------------------------------

Ryan, NuGreenlee, Dereck and six policemen were at Zendall's door.

"If you don't open up, we'll break the damn door down!" Ryan hollered.

"Lavery, I'm not going to tell you again," Derek warned him. "Stop doing my job."

"Come in, guys," Kendall greeted them uncertainly. She let them in and left the door open, just in case she and her husband needed to make a quick exit.

"Oh, good!" Zach cracked. "The circus has come to town!

Ryan was waving the Script.

"Your Reign of Terror is finished, Slater! We've got proof of what you've already done and what you're planning for this town!"

"A new casino?" Zach asked innocently.

"Ryan, what are you talking about?" Kendall demanded. "Zach and I have been investigating the disappearances. What sick fantasy has the witch Greenlee talked you into?"

"This isn't about Greenlee," Ryan maintained.

"She isn't even the real Greenlee!" Kendall reminded him scornfully. "She's some Recast that none of us ever saw before today! What did you say your real name was, girlie? Gina?"

NuGreenlee rose to this challenge. "You're changing the subject, Kendall. You're trying to protect Zach, but you can't. The truth is single-spaced in black and white."

"What is she blathering on about?" Kendall asked Derek.

He explained to Zach and Kendall about the Script NuGreenlee found and what it seemed to say.

"Oh, please, spare me!" Kendall laughed. "Gina planted an incriminating script. Big deal. Maybe she wrote it herself! Scratch that. I'm not sure she knows how to write. Anyway, she paid somebody to write the damn thing. Who cares?"

Ryan needed Kendall to believe him. He forced the script into her hand.

"Read it for yourself," he directed.

"Go to hell," she directed.

Zach got between the two of them before the confrontation had a chance to escalate..

"May I have a look at that?" he asked Ryan politely.

"Be my guest," Ryan replied between his teeth. "It's my favorite scene."

_How will Kendall feel about the Script once she's read some of it? What did Di tell Tad about that tune? Is Amanda right? Is it all a set-up to discredit the Newbies and Recasts? Will Lily solve the mystery before everybody disappears? Darned if I know. But return for the next thrilling chapter, and maybe we'll all find out together! All Reviews are answered promptly and in the friendliest possible manner:)_


	12. Chapter 12

_Chapter Twelve – "All Roads Lead to Zach?"_

_Previously -- After looking over the Script NuGreenlee found while cleaning up Ryan's penthouse, Derek Frye agreed to question Zach about the disappearances. Tad and Di searched the basement of Zach's Casino but found nothing but a basement. Di was about to tell Tad the name of the tune people hear when they try to call somebody who's vanished. Jonathan and Lily began their own investigation. As our Chapter begins, Ryan and Derek have arrived at Zendall's office and a triumphant Ryan has handed Zach the Script._

Zach began reading while, still angry, Kendall peered over his shoulder.

_Scene: The basement of Zach's Casino. The leading citizens of Pine Valley are tied to folding chairs while Zach Slater stands before them taunting them as carbon monoxide begins to slowly seep through a grate._

_Zach: I'd like to say it's been swell, folks. But you know how I really feel. So long, suckers!_

_Kendall: Zach, you can't turn your back, run out and leave all of us here to die! _

_Zach: Sure I can. Watch me._

_Erica: I warned you about him, Kendall. Didn't I warn you about him?_

_Kendall: Zach, you love me! How can you murder me if you love me?_

_Opal: He's crazier than a loon. That's how._

_Ryan: I warned you about him Kendall. Didn't I warn you about him?_

_Tad: They'll catch up with you Slater. Sooner or later._

_Zach: I prefer later, if you don't mind._

_Kendall: Zach, I love you! How can you murder me if I love you?_

_Zach bends down and kisses Kendall lightly._

_Zach: It's what I do. It's who I am. Rest in piece, Kendall!_

"Pure Shakespeare," Zach commented, closing the script with a snap.

"Pure bull!" Kendall cried out. "Derek, how can you believe this garbage is authentic?"

"I'm keeping an open mind," Derek revealed. "But all roads do seem to lead to you, Slater."

"Look, I've been with Zach all day long!" Kendall told them all. "How could he be making the Town disappear? Don't you think I'd have noticed?"

"You weren't with him all the time, Kendall," JR reminded her, striding through the open door. "You were up in the bedroom at Myrtle's with me looking at the wall. He had time to do whatever he did to whoever he did it to. And he did it to a lot of people."

"Who else has gone missing?" Kendall asked tensely.

"Just about everybody," Tad told her, walking in with Di. "Di and I went to Mytle's. The bedroom wall is nearly blank, and the kitchen wall has names from ceiling to floor. Just like the Script says."

But Kendall was far from convinced. "You've got this all wrong! Zach is helping to solve this! He's figured out how the names went from one wall to another!"

"Invisible ink," Ryan read from the script. "Timed to fade away and appear as people vanish."

That was enough for JR. "Take him away, Derek! At least he didn't get my Dad and Uncle Stuart!"

"Stuart is missing," Tad corrected JR sadly. "And so is Aidan. And so is Brooke. And so is Opal. You better call home, JR, and check on Adam."

JR made a dive for Zach but missed him by a mile thanks to Zach's good reflexes and JR's mounting terror.

"Don't get so excited, Junior," Zach said mildly. "You haven't even called home yet."

"I'm okay, son," Adam told him, swaggering through the open door with Babe, Krystal and Amanda in tow. "Although I guess I'm one of the only ones who is. Dereck, are you going to arrest that maniac or wait for us to string him up?"

Kendall clutched Zach's lapel protectively.

"Did you do it?" she whispered to him urgently.

"I don't think he did," Lily answered, walking though the door with Jonathan. "Our preliminary investigation puts Zach completely in the clear."

Everybody smiled at her indulgently and went on as if she hadn't spoken.

"Slater, I'm arresting you on suspicion," Derek informed him. "Cuff him, Men."

Without a moment's hesitation, Kendall threw herself in front of her husband.

"Are you crazy? Zach is innocent! If you arrest him, the real maniac will be free to continue vanishing people!"

"Kendall, I'm taking him in," Derek told her sternly. "Move away."

Zach took her in his arms. "Do what Derek says, Lovely. His mind is made up and he's got a gun. I'll be okay as long as you believe in me."

She hugged him with everything that was in her.

"But I won't be okay! I need you, Zach!"

Kendall's being okay was much on Zach's mind.

"Ryan, you've got to protect her," he said as he was being cuffed. "She's in real danger. Her name is on that bedroom wall."

"So is mine," Ryan said mildly. "What better protection for both of us than you in custody?"

"They aren't paying attention to us," Lily said to Jonathan. "They shouldn't be arresting Zach."

"Ryan," Jonathan said urgently. "Lily has a different theory. Maybe you should listen to her!"

But Ryan was too busy glowing as Zach was being led away to listen to anybody.

"Thanks for trying to help, Lily," Zach said to her as he walked out the door with Derek, flanked by the other cops. "You're a better detective than I am!"

"Well, that's true," Lily knew for certain.

The door closed with a bang that made Kendall's head ache.

"I'm not going to cry," she promised herself and whoever else was listening. "Crying won't solve anything."

"Sometimes crying solves things," Lily spoke up in minor disagreement. "When I'm sad and there nothing anybody can do to make me feel less sad, sometimes I cry. It makes me feel better."

"You don't have to cry to feel better, Lily," Jonathan told her seriously. "You can come to me, and I'll make you feel better. I promise."

"Lucky Jack has vanished," Kendall said before she could stop herself. "Seeing you two together would make his head explode."

"I want to call my Father," Babe said suddenly. "I don't know if he's safe."

"He isn't," Tad sighed. "He's listed on the kitchen wall with the other Vanished. I'm sorry, Babe. As much as David is a blight on my life, I wouldn't wish this on him."

Babe had begun calling him on her cell phone, her heart beating fast. All she heard after the ringing was the same song everybody heard when they tried calling the Vanished.

"Wait, Babe, let me hear that!" JR cried out. "I know that song! How could I _not_ know that song?"

"I didn't recognize it," Tad confessed to him. "Until Di told me."

Wide-eyed, Kendall looked from Tad to JR to Di. "So you want to share, people, or what? My husband was just dragged away to the Bastille. Any clues anybody may have to offer would be more than welcome!"

"It doesn't matter what the song is, Kendall," Ryan said. "Zach is the Maniac."

Zendall's phone had begun to ring off the hook.

The answering machine told the caller that Zendall was unavailable and asked him/her to leave a message.

"You have failed me, Zendall," the metallic voice intoned. "You have failed me, Tad. I hired both of your firms to solve this mystery. Now there will be hell to pay."

_Zach in custody? Kendall in danger? Will Ryan be able to protect Kendall (and himself) from who knows what, who knows who? What is Lily's theory, and will anybody but Jonathan listen to her in time? When do we get to know what the damn tune is? Exactly what did that metallic voice mean by "hell to pay"? Tune in for the next exciting installment! In the meantime, please write me a review and make me smile! Unless you tell me you're not enjoying this so much, in which the corners of my mouth will definitely point down:) _


	13. Chapter 13

_Chapter Thirteen – "Who's Your Lobster?"_

_Previously – Zach has been taken into custody on suspicion of being behind the disappearances, but not before asking Ryan to protect Kendall, whose name is on the Wall of the To Be Vanished. JR, Babe, Adam, Krystal and Amanda are in the Zendall office, along with Kendall, Ryan, NuGreenlee, Jonathan, Lily, Tad and Di. Kendall has just taken a call from the strange metallic voice that hired Zendall and Tad/Aidan to investigate the disappearances. The voice has accused them of failing in their mission and warns that there will be hell to pay as a result. As we join today's episode, Di has told Kendall the name of the haunting tune everybody almost recognizes but doesn't when they try phoning one of the Vanished._

"Don't be silly, that isn't what it is," Kendall scoffed when Di told her the name of the hauntingly familiar tune everybody almost recognized but didn't. "That's Country. This is a torch song from a Film Noir."

Tad nodded. "I thought so too at first. But it's the arrangement, Kendall, that's all. Di picked up on it right away."

"So why didn't you tell somebody right away?" Kendall asked, picking up on _that_ right away.

"I thought everybody knew," Di lied. "It's so obvious."

"I love that song," JR said dreamily. "You are my sunshine. My only sunshine. My Mom used to sing that to me when I was a baby."

"I know, JR," Di managed, praying the subject would turn away from Dixie fast.

"What do think it means?" Kendall wondered.

"Probably nothing," Di lied.

"Maybe something in the lyric is a clue," Lily suggested. "Although I don't see how it could be. It's all pretty straightforward."

"I don't know why you're all wasting your time," Ryan yawned. "The Maniac has been arrested!"

"Then who just phoned me saying there'd be hell to pay?" Kendall demanded. "The Easter Bunny?"

Ryan shrugged. "Probably one of Zach's men, whistling in the dark because Zach was picked up by the police. I'm telling you, Kendall, the right guy went to jail!"

"Kendall, you think whoever hired your detective agency is behind the disappearances?" Lily asked before Kendall had a chance to blow Ryan away into the next zip code, which she was fully intent on doing.

"I don't know what to think, Lily," she admitted, calming down with a sigh. "Except that the right guy did NOT go to jail!"

"Kendall it's over," Ryan said flatly. "Time to let go."

"We still don't know where half the Town is," Tad reminded him. "So nothing is over."

"The Script says the Missing are in Zach's Casino," NuGreenlee recalled. "In the basement of Zach's Casino."

Tad was shaking her head. "Di and I had a look-see. Nothing is in that basement but basement."

"See!" Kendall yelped. "That so-called Script is full of hooey! Zach is innocent! I'm calling Derek and getting him to let Zach go!"

Ryan stopped her before she could dial.

"Kendall, think it through," he implored her. "Zach stuck his victims someplace else once he knew the Script had tipped us off."

Kendall thought it through.

"Zach is being framed by that damn Script!" she concluded.

"Let me have a look at the Script again," Tad requested wearily. "Maybe we missed something."

Ryan handed him the Script, while Lily and Jonathan looked on in surprise since it was the first time they knew of its existence.

"What's that all about, Ry?" Jonathan asked at once.

Ryan happily told him it was Zach's ticket to Statesville.

Lily watched Tad, as he leafed through the pages.

"Can I look at it next. Tad?" she asked.

He grinned. "Sure, kiddo. You're all over the place in this. You and Jonathan are the detectives who crack the case wide open."

"We do?" Jonathan asked in wonder.

"Let's see," Lily said, happily accepting the script from Tad.

_Scene: Jonathan and Lily's tree house. They are discussing the disappearances which have filled Pine Valley with terror and foreboding._

_Lily: I don't think everybody is where people are looking for them. Or else they would have been found already. _

_Jonathan: So where have people looked already? _

"We really sound stupid," Lily said to Jonathan. "Is that how we sound in real life?"

"You sound adorable in real life," Tad assured her. "Or anyway in Pine Valley's version of real life."

Babe was getting restless.

"JR, maybe we should do on home," she suggested. "Between you, me and Mama, I'm pretty sure we can keep your Daddy safe."

"Thank you, Babe," Adam replied stiffly. "But I can keep myself safe. Been doing it for years."

"You're our favorite meal ticket, Adam," Krystal drawled. "Ain't nobody gonna hurt you while I'm around."

"You're all living in a fool's paradise," Amanda said darkly on her way out. "See ya later. Some of you anyway."

Tad grimaced. "I think Di and I are going too. Will you be alright here, Kendall?"

"We'll stay with Kendall," Ryan said on behalf of his nuwife.

Tad and the others nodded and let themselves out, none of them believing that Zach's arrest had done anything to set things right again.

"Don't do me any favors," Kendall said sweetly to Ryan when the door closed. "Nobody has to stay with Kendall but Zach, and Zach has been hauled away to the can on trumped-up charges. So Kendall Hart Slater is on her own."

She had begun to pace the room, the reality of the situation hitting her harder with every step she took. She felt like a caged animal and she could only imagine how Zach felt in a real cage. Nothing anybody could say to her could make her feel any better.

"I'm here for you, Kendall," Ryan told her earnestly. "Like you've been there for me."

Kendall stopped pacing and fought the desire to throw Ryan out of a window.

"Is that the Little Girl's Room?" NuGreenlee asked sweetly, pointing to a door, in search of a bathroom. "I need to freshen up."

"She is rather stale" Kendall cracked, when NuGreenlee left the room. "Can you pick 'em or can you pick 'em?"

Ryan grinned. "Once upon a time I picked you, Kendall. And you picked me. Remember? We almost made it to the finish line."

She shrugged. "After you left me flat a few times and faked your own death, the memory kind of got hazy. Flatleaver."

Ryan did his best to make her understand "We'll always be connected, Kendall. Nothing either of us can do about it."

But Kendall was shaking her head. "Sorry, Ryan. You aren't my lobster."

He replied to that with a blank stare.

"That comes from 'Friends', the television show," Lily explained to him and Jonathan. "Lobsters mate for life, so Phoebe, who was a character on the show, told Ross and Rachel, who were other characters on the show, that they were each other's lobster. Kendall is telling you that you two don't belong together for always, Ryan."

That was a bit hard for Ryan to take. "So who do you belong with, Kendall? That maniac Slater?"

Kendall smiled shyly and looked down at the floor. "Sue me. Zach is my lobster."

"Seems to me Zach is more mobster than lobster," NuGreenlee opined, coming back into the room. "But that's only my opinion."

"If anybody knew who the hell you were, somebody might care," Kendall observed hotly. Then her mind turned to the matter at hand. "Lily, tell us your theory. Please."

"Okay," Lily agreed eagerly. "Kendall, here's why I'm pretty sure Zach is innocent. A criminal needs three things. Motive, means and opportunity."

"Zach has no motive," Kendall broke in.

"He has the Maniac Motive," Ryan disagreed. "World Domination beginning with Pine Valley."

"Ryan, do you ever listen to yourself?" Kendall asked him.

Lily went on. "Let's skip 'means' for a second and go on to 'opportunity'. Zach didn't have time to make all the victims disappear. It's a logistical impossibility."

"JR said he and Kendall left Zach alone at Myrtle's," NuGreenlee recalled. "So there's his opportunity."

"But there were people missing _before_ that," Kendall pointed out. "It all started this morning with Palmer. Zach and I were here together when Palmer went missing. Zach couldn't have had anything to do with it."

"So he hired somebody to do his dirty work for him," Ryan theorized. "It wouldn't be the first time."

"You have no proof he did that," Kendall shot back. "All you're going on is that lame-brained phony baloney Script."

"Let's look at whether Zach had the means," Lily suggested. "Where would he keep all of his victims?"

"Page 3," Ryan informed her. "He tied them up and put them in the basement of his Casino."

"Tad said the Casino basement is empty," Kendall recalled. "Besides, Zach sold the Casino when he went into the detective business with me, so he had no access."

Lily wanted to make certain all bases were covered. "Of course he could have rented a warehouse, so we're going to have to search his office for receipts."

"This is his office," Kendall pointed out. "And the only receipts are for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You're all free to search. I've got nothing to hide. And neither does my husband."

"Come on, everyone, let's look," Ryan urged them, fully convinced they would turn up more evidence against Zach.

So Kendall, Lily, Jonathan, Ryan and NuGreenlee turned the office upside down. All they found were seventy-five restaurant receipts.

"How much take-out do you actually consume per week?" NuGreenlee asked, really wanting to know. "Silly question. Look at you! You couldn't possibly be eating any of it. Or anything else."

"Kendall doesn't eat," Ryan recalled. "The take-out must be for Zach and his Gang."

That did it.

"Zach and his Gang?" Kendall repeated. "Omigod, Ryan. You've really lost it. Go away! I can't take it anymore. Go home, and take What's-Her-Name Again with you! Maybe you'll find another Script in your living room that blames Zach for Global Warming!"

"Ryan has to stay with you," Jonathan explained to Kendall. "Zach asked him to protect you. But that's okay. I can stay and protect you, if you want Ryan and What's-Her-Name Again to go home."

"Greenlee!" NuGreenlee cried out. "I'm Greenlee! I've got the Contract to prove it!"

"If you're staying, Jonathan, I'm staying," Lily made it clear. "Ryan can you leave us the Script? We can go over it and find what everybody else has missed."

"Sure," Ryan said, "I've made copies. But you won't find anything we haven't found already." He turned back to Kendall. "Are you really sure you want me to leave you? I mean, I know you're in no danger because Zach is locked up, but I don't want to leave if you're afraid."

"Drop dead," Kendall told him with all her heart.

"I think she wants you to go," Lily interpreted. "Good-night, Ryan! Good-night What's-Her-Name Again!"

"Greenlee!" NuGreenlee screamed, as Ryan led her out into the night.

_Will Kendall be safe with only Lily and Jonathan to protect her from vanishing? Does Di suspect a connection between "You Are My Sunshine" and the crimes? When will Lily find something in the Script everybody else missed? How long will Kendall's lobster be on ice? Where are the Vanished? Time will tell, but I won't. Not yet anyway. Please return for our next exciting installment! Reviews are treasured:)_


	14. Chapter 14

_Chapter Fourteen – Di's Dilemma, Kendall's Screams, Lily's Idea, Ryan's Visit to Zach in Jail, and Tad's Next_

_Previously: Following Zach's arrest, JR, Babe, Adam, Krystal, Amanda, Ryan and NuGreenlee have left the Zendall office, leaving Kendall with Jonathan and Lily. Lily keeps going over the Script, hoping to find the mystery's solution. Kendall staunchly believes Zach has been railroaded, despite Ryan's attempts to convince her the right maniac was arrested. Di is still keeping THE SECRET from Tad, although she'safraid Dixie is somehow involved in the disappearances._

From the moment she heard the song on Tad's cell phone Di was stuck firmly on the horns of a dilemma. She was terrified that Dixie was involved somehow with the disappearances. What else could that song mean? Was "You Are My Sunshine" code for "Dixie Dun It"? Or was whoever responsible for the whole nightmare holding Dixie as well? Was that song a specific message meant for Di alone, since Di was the only person in Pine Valley who knew Dixie was alive? She longed to ask Tad what he thought. But asking Tad meant telling Tad. And telling Tad meant losing Tad.

"Penny for your thoughts," he was saying to her now, as they drove back to Wildwind, where Julia was letting her stay. Julia had disappeared along with everybody else who had disappeared. She didn't need to go to Wildwind to learn that; she had read it with Tad on Myrtle's kitchen wall. How could Dixie be involved in all this? How?

"Dixie's on my mind," Di said carefully.

Tad sighed. "Yeah, mine too. Damn song brought her right back to me. Why do you suppose Zach used it? He didn't even know Dixie."

"You think it was Zach?" Di asked, surprised.

"Seems a likely candidate," Tad said. "The Script pins it on him. Who else could it be?"

"Dixie," Di said to herself. "That's who else it could be, Tad."

-------------------------------------

Kendall was doing her best to stay calm. Freaking out wouldn't help Zach, she reasoned. Not that anything she was doing had the remotest chance of helping him anyway. The only way she could help Zach would be to find out who had made half the town go missing and then to find them. Or to find them first and then find out who had taken them. And why.

"So what am I doing to solve the case?" she asked herself. "I'm sitting in my office with Lily and Ryan's brother, who tried to kill all of us a few months ago, while they read a Script that says over and over again that Zach is guilty as sin. The love of my life is sitting in a jail cell while I watch Lily and Jonathan reading. What's wrong with this picture?"

"So far there's nothing that implicates Zach except this Script" Lily was summarizing. "Jonathan, we need to go over this again."

"How many times are you going to go over it?" Kendall had to ask. "You must have the damn thing memorized by now."

"We need to keep rereading it until we find the answer," Lily answered at once.

"What if there is no answer?" Jonathan asked. "I mean, what if we can't find the answer we want? What if we can't find out that Zach didn't do it?"

"Zach DIDN'T do it!" Kendall exploded, forgetting how yelling affected Lily. "Oh, Lily, forgive me!" she begged her, when she saw the terrified young woman's hands fly up to her ears and the look of pain spread across her face. "I didn't mean to scream. Out loud."

Lily forced herself to stop shaking. She looked at Jonathan, and that grounded her, as it always did. "So from now on you're going to try to do all your screaming inside?" she asked Kendall, slowly taking her hands away from her ears.

"Yes," Kendall promised her. "I'm screaming inside right now."

-------------------------------------

"Do I get to make a phone call?" Zach was asking Derek. "Do I get to have a lawyer? Anybody here ever heard of the Constitution of the United States of America?"

"You have a visitor," Derek replied brusquely, avoiding every question.

"Hiya, Zach!" Ryan greeted him. "How's life treating you?"

Zach felt like he'd been kicked in the gut. He clutched the bars of his cell so hard his knuckles went white. "Lavery, you're supposed to be with Kendall. You're supposed to be protecting her!"

Ryan chuckled. "Protecting Kendall from who? The only threat to her is standing right in front of me in a jail cell."

"Derek, call Livia for me!" Zach yelled out. "I need to get out of here! Now!"

"I'd love to call Livia," Derek said, not bothering to keep the icy hatred out of his voice. "I only wish I knew where she was. Where is she, Slater?"

-------------------------------------

_Scene: Jonathan and Lily's tree house. They are still discussing the disappearances which have filled Pine Valley with horror and foreboding._

_Lily: Maybe we should go check out Zach's Casino for ourselves. He's the logical suspect after all._

_Jonathan: Lily, do you ever think about kissing me? I think about kissing you all the time. _

_Lily: I don't think about any one thing all the time, Jonathan. That isn't how my mind works._

_Jonathan: I love the way your mind works, Lily._

"Kendall, can you wait until I'm through reading?" Lily asked her politely. "People looking over my shoulder make me extremely nervous."

"You two have a tree house?" Kendall asked pointblank. "Or is that another lie in the Script? Right along with the Vanished being held captive in the Casino basement and Zach being the manic who's behind all of this?"

"Lily, please turn to the part where we figure out where Zach is holding the victims," Jonathan requested. "I want to read something again."

"Oh, brother!" Kendall muttered, thoroughly exasperated.

"Here it is," Lily said, showing the Script to Jonathan.

_Lily: Where do you suppose Zach could be keeping all those people? Casinos don't have attics._

_Jonathan: But they have basements. Come on, Lily! _

_Lily: Shouldn't we call Dereck?_

_Jonathan: No time for that! There's no telling what that maniac is going to do to all those people he's kidnapped! _

Jonathan closed the Script with a sigh. "And then we go to Zach's Casino and find all the missing people in the basement. Only Tad said the basement is empty."

"Yes!" Kendall readily agreed. "Which proves the whole Script is nothing but a work of fiction. Rotten fiction."

"Unless there's another basement," Lily said.

Jonathan and Kendall exchanged glances.

"Another basement?" Kendall whispered.

"Yes, a second basement where the victims could be held." Lily thought that through. "It's only an idea. Do you suppose Zach kept a floor plan of the Casino?"

"Lily, you guys have already ransacked this office looking for evidence," Kendall said, trying to ignore a gnawing feeling that was currently lodged in the pit of her stomach. "Nobody found the Casino's floor plan."

"That's true," Lily agreed. "Could there be anything we missed? Is there a safe somewhere?"

Kendall flinched. "On that wall, behind that portrait of the Kane Women."

Lily smiled, admiring the likenesses of Erica, Kendall, Bianca and Miranda. "Can I be in the next portrait? Now that my Dad is married to Erica, I'm technically a Kane Woman!"

"Sure," Kendall said, her mind and heart racing. "You'll be in the very next portrait, Lily. Word of honor."

Briefly, she considered telling them it was all a waste of time to look inside the safe. Why would Zach have put the Casino's floor plan in the wall safe? But if it were there, maybe it could help him somehow. Or sink him. Either way, Kendall needed to know the truth. Resolutely, she moved the portrait, revealing the wall safe.

"Do you know the combination?" Jonathan asked her.

Mutely, Kendall nodded. She opened the safe quickly and stepped away from it, allowing Lily to have a look inside.

"I found the Casino's floor plan!" Lily sang out.

"And look, there's the second basement!" Jonathan sang out.

-------------------------------------

Dereck had been called away on police business and reluctantly left Zach and Ryan alone to face each other through the steel bars of Zach's cell.

"Ryan, let's make a deal," Zach proposed, wracking his brain to come up with a way to convince Ryan Lavery that Kendall was in real danger. He didn't figure his chances of doing so were all that good, since at that moment, Ryan Lavery was looking as if he'd picked the Derby winner or won the Nobel Prize or both.

"I don't think you're in any position to make a deal, Slater. You're incarcerated. That means you're in jail."

Zach smiled, careful not to make his smile look like a smirk. "Ryan, we are different men, you and I," he began carefully.

"I'll say. For one thing I'm not under arrest."

Ryan knew he was having too much fun. But he had wanted to bring Slater down for such a long time, he couldn't resist.

"True," Zach conceded. "And for another thing we both care about Kendall."

"_I_ care about Kendall," Ryan corrected him. "I don't know if you're capable of caring about anything or anybody."

By an enormous act of will, Zach did not let his anger show.

"Lavery, Kendall is in danger. You're in danger too, but you're not so important to me. Kendall is important to me. Is she important to you?"

But Ryan refused to see things the way Zach saw them.

"Gee, Zach. I didn't know I wasn't important to you! What a revelation! I'm devastated!"

Zach reached through the bars, grabbed Ryan by the collar with both hands and pulled hard.

"Go find Kendall and make sure nothing happens to her!" he ordered Ryan when their faces were only inches apart, his words coming out slowly, meaningfully and menacingly "If you won't do that, if you can't do that, then get me the hell out of this cell and I'll do it myself!"

"You're not going anywhere, Slater," Dereck informed him, walking in. "Let go of Lavery. Now."

-------------------------------------

"Thanks for driving me home," Di thanked Tad.

"Anytime," he replied, wanting to stop wanting to kiss her.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she said to him. "Maybe by then Zach will have led the police to everybody who's missing." She didn't sound like she believed that would happen. "Tad, there is one thing you should know."

"You want a raise already?" he joked.

What she wanted was to tell him that his Dixie was alive and might be involved in the disappearances.

"I want you to know how grateful I am that you hired me," she said instead.

"I do know. That's why I hired you. So you'd be grateful to me forever. See you tomorrow, Watson. Don't be late or I'll dock your pay. Don't think I won't."

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here with me?" Di offered. "Your name is on that wall, don't forget."

"Jamie's waiting for me at home," he explained. "He's bigger than you so he'll probably be able to protect me from the bogeyman better than you could. Maybe."

Di laughed and went into Wildwind as Tad sauntered back toward his car.

"Tad!" a familiar voice called out to him.

That was the last thing he heard for a long time.

_Are the Vanished being held in the Casino's Second Basement? If so, does Zach know? Does that mean Zach is behind the disappearances? Or is Dixie behind it all? Or is it somebody else? Can Zach convince Derek and Ryan to help him protect Kendall before she is vanished? Does he know who he's protecting her from? Could Jily be cuter? Frustrated? Confused? Just you wait until the next thrilling episode which will leave you even more frustrated and confused! To get back at me, please send me a Review:)_


	15. Chapter 15

_Chapter Fifteen – "The Nightmare Continues"_

_Previously: Pursuing their search for the Vanished, Jily and Kendall are on their way to the Casino's second basement, the floor plan of which they found in a wall safe in Zendall's office. Zach was horrified when Ryan paid him a visit in jail because he'd assumed Ryan was protecting Kendall from being vanished by the Maniac. Di and Tad grew closer as they investigated the Casino's empty first basement although Di continued to be troubled because she hadn't gotten around to telling Tad that Dixie was alive. And then Tad was vanished._

Night fell upon a troubled Pine Valley. A toxic fog of dread gripped the town and wouldn't let go. Most of the residents who hadn't vanished were missing somebody who had. Nothing made sense to anybody. People locked their doors and barred their windows, fearing they would be the next to disappear and knowing they were helpless to stop that from happening. Some had theories, but nobody had answers.

Except for Amanda, who was certain of the truth. But it wasn't the Anti-Newbie/Recast conspiracy theory she was telling anybody who would listen. She saw Janet from Another Planet all over this mystery. With her Dad out of the country on a special assignment, her mom had begun to unspool. Their phone conversations were becoming increasingly bizarre, and Amanda was convinced her Mother had returned to Pine Valley to settle old scores.

"Please don't let that be true," she prayed. "I'd rather be the victim of an Anti-Newbie/Recast conspiracy than to think my Mother is behind all of this horror."

She gathered up all of her courage and called home.

"Mom, is everything okay?" she asked her. "Are you okay?"

"Rain as rain," Janet replied quickly.

Too quickly, Amanda thought miserably.

-------------------------------------

"All I'm asking you, all I'm begging you, is to call Kendall and make sure she's all right."

Derek considered Zach's request. His Sister was missing, his Town was half-missing, his Police Force was stretched beyond its capabilities. He had never faced anything like this crisis, and he had faced more than his share. Even though he had only been cast rather recently, he was sure this was new territory for Derek Frye. He weighed the desperation in Slater's voice against the nonchalance Lavery was exhibiting.

"Call her, Lavery," he directed. "Now."

Ryan shrugged and punched the number into his cell phone. It rang. And rang. And rang.

"_You've reached Zendall. Sorry, but all operatives are currently helping other clients. Your call is important to us, so please leave your name, number and the time you called and somebody will get back to you as soon as possible. Please wait for the beep and thank you for calling!"_

"I don't like that," Ryan had to admit. "Kendall would have picked up. Something is wrong."

"Thank you," Zach breathed. "Now let's get over there and see what's going on! You can keep me in handcuffs, Dereck, I don't care. Put my legs in shackles, and I won't care. But what you can't do is to keep me locked up while Kendall's alone and in mortal danger!"

"Yes, I can, Slater" Derek said quietly. "But I'm not going to."

-------------------------------------

"Don't worry, Babe," JR told his worried wife. They had drawn closer in these last weeks, and it had begun to hurt him to see her unhappy, which was strange to him because seeing her unhappy used to be his greatest joy in life.

"I know my Dad isn't a hero in this town," Babe said, crying on JR's shoulder. "But I love him, and I want him back!"

"I want my Uncle Stuart back too," JR commiserated. "And my Aunt Marian and sister Colby. I want things back the way they were yesterday!"

-------------------------------------

Gina had the stereo on full blast and was dancing around the penthouse, waiting for Ryan to come home. "Pretty great," she thought. "Soon Ryan will be desperately in love with me, because I "get" him, whatever that means. That's when he'll forget there ever was a Greenlee before me. As for Kendall, she'll probably disappear with all the other Veterans. He'll miss her for awhile, I guess. But that won't last long, I'll set to that." She kicked off her shoes and threw a throw-pillow up in the air, laughing all the while. "No two ways about it. I love my life!"

-------------------------------------

"Zach is bound to crack before long and tell the cops where he stashed the Veterans," Krystal was comforting Adam. "Stuart and Marion will be back before you know it, Frosty."

"And Colby," Adam remembered. "She's missing too. I haven't seen her in so long. I wonder how old she is now."

-------------------------------------

There was something Ryan needed Zach to know, as they rode side-by-side in the back seat of the squad car Derek was driving to Zendall's office.

"You aren't the only one who's in love with Kendall. I can't remember when I didn't love her. I've loved her every hour of every day since the minute I met her. Nobody can drive me crazier, and nobody can make me happier. I've known her longer than you, Slater, and I've been in love with her longer than you. I haven't always realized the strength of the bond between us. I realize it now."

Ryan's heartfelt confession was probably the last thing Zach wanted to hear. But he owed Ryan for making that unanswered call to Zendall that convinced Derek to let them ride to the rescue, so he listened as respectfully as he could.

"I'll kill myself if anything's happened to her," Ryan went on. "For real this time."

That got Zach's attention.

"I know you care about her, Ryan," he said quietly. "That's why you're helping to save her."

"I'm in love with her," Ryan corrected him. "I don't just care about her. I am --"

"In love with her?" Dereck guessed, stopping the squad car in front of Zendall's building. "That's nice. Why don't we all get out and see what's happening in your office, Slater? Nobody do anything stupid. I'm in charge."

-------------------------------------

"This must be the second basement," Lily said to Jonathan and Kendall when the elevator stopped at "B2".

"Good thing the key to this place was in the wall safe along with the floor plan," Jonathan whispered, as the elevator doors parted.

"Yeah, that was great," Kendall said morosely. "I'm surprised we didn't also find a bloody ax with Zach's fingerprints." She had been trying to come up with an innocent explanation of why Zach hadn't told everybody about the existence of a second basement and why he'd kept a key and the floor plan to the Casino in the wall safe. Were they about to find the bodies of their friends and family in that second basement? Did Zach know they were there? Did Zach _put_ them there?

They got out of the elevator.

"It's dark in here," Lily observed for them all.

"Here," a familiar voice said turning on the lights, "I'll make it better."

-------------------------------------

Di couldn't sleep, so she decided to call Tad and confess to him over the phone that Dixie was alive and possibly involved in the disappearances. At least that way she wouldn't see the expression of elation mixed with disgust that would appear on the face she loved so totally. Elation for Dixie, disgust for her. But when Jamie answered the phone, he said Tad wasn't home yet.

"I'm kind of worried," he confided to Di. "This is a bad night to be outside."

-------------------------------------

The only unusual thing Derek, Ryan and Zach found in Zendall's office was the open wall safe and a note from Lily.

"_Whoever reads this, please don't worry. We're on our way to solve the mystery and find everybody who's vanished." _

"Why the heck didn't she say where they were going?" Ryan howled in frustration.

Zach glanced at the open wall safe. "I know where they're going. Come on. Maybe we're not too late."

_Can Zach and Ryan save Kendall in time? In time for what? Who turned on the lights for Kendall and Jily? How will Kendall react when Ryan tells her he's in love with her? How will NuGreenlee feel about it? Is Janet behind all the vanishings? Dixie? Somebody else? And most of all, if the Vanished aren't in the basement or the second basement, where the heck are they? Please return for another fun-filled chapter of danger and intrigue! Reviews are treasured!_


	16. Chapter 16

_Chapter Sixteen – "The Second Basement"_

_Previously: Kendall, Jonathan and Lily discover a floor plan of the Casino in Zendall's wall safe, showing a second basement, where they speculate the Vanished may be hidden. With Zach under arrest, a desperate Kendall accompanies Jily to the Casino hoping against hope she won't find the bodies of her missing friends and family. Meanwhile, an imprisoned Zach has convinced Ryan and Derek to help him make sure Kendall is safe. When Jily and Kendall reach the Casino's second basement, an unseen hand turns on the lights._

Ethan stood smiling at Kendall, Jonathan and Lily. He was all by himself in the second basement. The Vanished were nowhere in sight.

"Thanks for turning on the lights," Kendall thanked him. "What are you doing here, Ethan?"

"Looking for Simone," he replied with no hesitation. "I've been searching all through the Casino, just in case. You never know where Zach could have stashed his victims."

Kendall winced. "So you think your Father is guilty of this?" she asked him. "You think he's capable of doing something like this?"

Ethan smiled, but the smile didn't go all the way up to his eyes. "In my opinion, Zach Slater is capable of anything. Isn't that what the Script says?"

"Ryan showed the Script to you?" Lily asked.

Ethan nodded. "I can't say that I'm surprised. Only terribly sorry that I'm related to the man, if only biologically."

Kendall had stopped listening to him.

"So the Vanished aren't here," she stated. "That means there's no connection between the crimes and Zach." She began breathing normally again for the first time since Lily and Jonathan found the Casino's key and floor plan in the wall safe.

"I never thought it was Zach," Lily volunteered.

"Lily is a wonderful judge of character," Jonathan told them. "When everybody else in this town treated me like I was still a deranged killer, Lily saw something else. She saw that I had changed."

But Ethan was shaking his head.

"Mark my words. Zach is behind all of this. It's the only possible explanation."

Kendall was in no mood for a debate but she couldn't let that go.

"You're wrong, Ethan. I believe completely in Zach's innocence."

"I'm not that innocent," Zach smiled, emerging from the elevator with Derek and Ryan. "But kidnapping people isn't my kind of fun." He was so relieved to find Kendall safe and sound, he felt as if he were floating off the elevator. He still couldn't believe the electric effect she had on him. But that didn't stop him from enjoying it.

"I don't care what anybody else thinks!" Kendall declared, wrapping herself around him, to his infinite delight.

"When did you _ever_ care what anyone thought?" he inquired of her, wondering how her presence could brighten up even a dingy second basement.

She laughed and broke out of their embrace. But she didn't walk too far away from him. How could she have missed him so much in so short a time? Kendall had always yearned to be loved, but never liked feeling so dependant on anybody. So needy. "No wonder I didn't want to fall in love again," she thought ruefully. She stared at her husband and allowed herself to feel everything he made her feel: love, anxiety, insecurity, insane happiness and about four thousand other emotions she was too weary to name. "I can't negotiate this," she realized. "I'm crazy in love with him, and that's all there is to that."

"Zach, you're free!" Lily greeted him. "Did they find out who did it and where the Vanished are?"

"Not yet, I'm afraid," Derek told her. "Zach convinced Ryan and me to find Kendall because she's on the list. But I guess we worried for nothing."

"Ryan put Lily and me in charge of watching out for Kendall," Jonathan explained to Derek. "But you're on the list too, Ry! You shouldn't be out alone."

"We've been taking good care of Ryan," Zach said mildly. "Right, Derek?"

"Waste of time," Derek growled. "There's nothing here. Another dead end, that's all."

"I'm not so sure," Ethan said, his eyes fastened on something on the floor on the other side of the basement. "What's that, do you suppose?"

It turned out to be a delicate, exquisitely beautiful gold necklace with two hearts linked together.

"Somebody must have dropped that," Lily assumed. "Maybe it belongs to one of the Vanished. That would mean that at some point they were here after all."

"That belongs to my sister, Dixie," Di said unsteadily, walking out of the elevator.

"Your dead sister Dixie?" Kendall clarified.

"Not exactly," Di said quietly.

-------------------------------------

"I wish we knew what the hell was happening!" Adam was complaining to Krystal. He was nothing if not a man of action. But in this case he hadn't a clue of what action to take. "I should be doing something! I shouldn't be lying here in bed while my town disappears!"

Krystal disagreed. "You on the list, Adam. How can I keep you safe if you go gallivanting around town looking for who knows what?"

"Keep me safe?" Adam echoed. "Why? Because I'm your meal ticket?"

Krystal threw herself directly on top of him. "You're a heck of a lot more than that to me, and you know it!"

At that potentially interesting moment, JR came into their bedroom.

"Di just called me. Jamie told her Tad hasn't come home yet. She thinks he's been taken."

-------------------------------------

"Dixie's alive?" Kendall repeated, the words as amazing to her as when Di first said them a moment before. "How can Dixie be alive?"

"It's a long story," Di explained.

"Well, this necklace is evidence that Dixie was here," Lily analyzed. "But we don't know when. She might be one of the Vanished."

Di nodded. "Or she might be the kidnapper. 'You Are My Sunshine' is more or less her theme song."

"And that's the tune we hear when we try to call one of the Vanished," Kendall recalled. "Could be a clue."

Ethan seemed doubtful.

"I still think it's you, Slater," he told Zach.

"Thanks, son," Zach replied. "I love you too." The problem was that he did, although he had no notion how he could ever make Ethan believe he did, after everything that had happened between them, beginning with his denial of his only child. He had done that out of love, but Ethan would never believe that.

"Tad's gone missing," Di told them then. "At the Police Station, they told me you were here, Derek. I didn't know where else to go." She looked around. "I didn't know there was a second basement. Tad and I --". Briefly she broke down. "Tad and I only checked the first basement. There was nothing there."

"There's nothing in the second basement either," Derek pointed out glumly.

"Except the necklace," Di said brokenly, taking it from Ethan's hands. "Dixie's necklace."

Derek was in no mood to speculate on who left the necklace and under what circumstances.

"I'm going back to the Station. I'd advise you all to go home and sit tight."

"Me too?" Zach asked happily, surprised that Derek didn't seem to want to take him back to his cell.

"You too," Derek affirmed. "The more I think about it, the less sense that Script makes."

Kendall stifled a cheer and contented herself with flying into Zach's arms.

"I guess we'll go home to the penthouse," Ryan said, jealousy and regret stabbing him clear through. "Come on, Jonathan."

"Lily has to come along with us," Jonathan said. "There's nobody left at home to take care of her now."

"My brother Reggie can take care of me," Lily differed. "But I'd rather go with you, Jonathan. If that's okay, Ryan."

"You two are quite an item," Ryan commented.

"We're good together," Jonathan explained solemnly. "We belong together."

"So do we!" Kendall whispered to Zach, hugging him even tighter.

Ryan watched in silence and felt his heart shatter as he thought of what had been, what might have been, and what could never be again.

"Come on you two," he said to Jonathan and Lily, keeping a stiff upper lip. "Let's go home. Greenlee must be worried."

"Where are you headed, Ethan?" Derek inquired as they all got into the elevator. "Home to get some sleep?"

"Oh, I have miles to go before I sleep," Ethan told Derek pleasantly. "Miles to go before I sleep."

-------------------------------------

"Mom, please call me back when you get this message," a tearful and terrified Amanda begged Janet's answering machine. "Everything has gone crazy in Pine Valley, and I'm really scared!"

-------------------------------------

"Please tell me again why we're we going to the Police Station?" a sleepy Babe requested with a yawn.

"It's safer there," Krystal told her. "You know how lousy the security is in this Mansion! Where's little A?"

"I've got him," JR said, holding his sleeping son against his heart. "Where's my Dad?"

"Right behind us," Krystal assumed as they all walked down the stairs and out of the Mansion.

Only Adam _wasn't_ right behind them.

-------------------------------------

_Adam has vanished? Who's left? Can Zendall, Jily, and Ryan solve the mystery before there's nobody left to solve it? Please return for the next thrilling installment which features Zendall transforming Fear into Passion! Finally! _


	17. Chapter 17

_Chapter Seventeen – "If Now Is All There Is"_

_Previously: Kendall, Jonathan and Lily discovered nothing in the Casino's second basement but Ethan and a gold necklace that Di identified as belonging to her not-so-dead half-sister, Dixie. Zach, Ryan and Derek arrived on the scene to rescue a perfectly all right Kendall. Derek was bitterly disappointed that (a) nobody in the second basement needed to be rescued and (b) the Vanished were nowhere to be found. He advised everybody to go home, including Zach whom he no longer believed was responsible for the Vanishings, in spite of Ethan's strongly stated belief that Zach was behind everything . Krystal decided her family would all be better off at the Police Station, so the Chandlers exited the Mansion, except for Adam, who disappeared. Meanwhile, Amanda became increasing upset because she couldn't reach Janet, and Di began to believe the worst about Dixie. We rejoin our story as Zach and Kendall do their best to relax while their whole world continues to spin out of control._

"We probably should get some sleep," Zach said to Kendall between long, deep kisses.

Despite their marriage, they were still living in separate condos, conveniently across the street from each other. Without discussing the matter, they had gone to her place when they left the Casino's second basement. Getting there a little after midnight, they fell together on the couch without a word, numb and exhausted. At the moment, they were still on the couch, locked in each other's arms, still exhausted, but slightly less numb.

"Sleep?" Kendall asked weakly, coming up for air. "How is that supposed to happen? My Mother is missing and the Maniac who kidnapped her along with most of my town is still on the loose. And I'm next."

Zach shifted slightly so he could look her square in the eye. "You're not next, Lovely. Nobody's gonna get to you but me. Are we clear on that?"

"I still don't want to sleep," Kendall told him nonetheless. "I'm too wired. My mind won't shut down."

Zach kissed her on the nose.

"What's on your lovely mind, Lovely?" he asked playfully.

So she told him.

"Why did you put the Casino key and floor plans in the Zendall wall safe? Why didn't you tell anybody there's a second basement? Why _is _there a second basement?"

He burst out laughing. "Nobody can say that you don't how to kill a moment!"

When she didn't join in his laughter, he decided to answer her as truthfully as he knew how.

"The second basement reinforces the foundation, or so they told me when they built the damn Casino," Zach recounted. "I had both basements checked as soon as I found out what the Script said. So I knew they were empty. As for the Casino, the sale hasn't closed yet. I kept the key and floor plans at Zendall because that's my office now. Everything sound reasonable?"

"Who's the buyer?" she asked him. "You never said who the buyer is. Not that it's any of my business."

"My son," he told her with no hesitation. "Ethan. Given your history with him, I wasn't too sure how you'd feel about that."

Kendall was delighted. A reconciliation between Zach and Ethan was at least number 3 on her Wish List.

"That's good," she told him, meaning it. "Maybe it can be a start of a new chapter for you two."

He nodded happily. "Maybe. How's about a new chapter for you and me?"

She laughed. "The thing of it is, Zach, you make me so damn giddy, I keep forgetting that my world is falling apart. What kind of person does that make me?"

Zach knew.

"The perfect person," he told her. "Now can I ask you a question?"

Kendall laughed again. "If it's about where our clothes are, the answer is, in several piles somewhere on the floor. Except for your shirt, which is over there on top of that lamp where it landed when I tore it off. I can't believe I did that.""

Zach could believe it.

"My question is, why don't you think I'm the Maniac?"

Kendall stretched and smiled. "I have my reasons," she explained.

"Is it because you're blindly in love with me?" he asked hopefully. "Kendall, could you be taking a leap of faith because you love me?"

Kendall kissed his lips tenderly before she burst his balloon. "I _am_ blindly in love with you, Zach, but leaps of faith are not my best event. Actually, Lily analyzed the mystery and convinced me you were in the clear. It's a matter of motive, means and opportunity, none of which you had. Disappointed in me?"

"Devastated," he admitted, only half-kidding. "Lily, huh?"

"Uh-huh," Kendall confirmed. "She's a natural detective. We oughta hire her. Any more questions?"

Zach thought up a new question as he played with Kendall's hair.

"Okay. My question is, shouldn't we relax for a space of time so we can be effective later on? Who knows what's going to happen next?"

"I know what's going to happen next," she stated sadly. "I'm going to vanish like everybody else. Typical Kendall. I finally find my lobster and pfft I'm gone. Into a Black Hole, or a Third Basement or worse."

"Your lobster?" he asked, never having seen the relevant "Friends" episode. Or any "Friends" episode.

"I never get to have a happy ending," Kendall elaborated. That isn't how my character has ever been written. Ever. Not that I'm feeling sorry for myself. I'm only being honest. In my considered opinion, this is it, Zach. Now is all we have."

He had never seen her so vulnerable, so utterly defenseless. It was as if every bad thing that had happened all day long had finally crashed down on her. This wasn't the brave, reckless girl he had fallen in love with. This was a Kendall he had never even seen before. A doomed Kendall, who hadn't even a shred of hope.

"All right, if now is all we have, let's grab hold of it!" he told her passionately, trying to bring her to life again. "And never let go!"

"Until I vanish," she added.

"I won't let you vanish," he promised, holding her so close all they could hear, all they could feel, was each other's heartbeat. "I'll find Erica and everybody else. I'll bring the Maniac to justice. Nobody will ever hurt you again. You'll have your happy ending, Lovely. And so will I."

None of her believed him, but all of her wanted to. His body, equal parts of fire and steel, was suddenly her refuge. She yearned to melt into him forever, so they could never be apart again even for a instant. And she would be safe. And she would be saved. And she would be loved.

"What else could we do together to relax besides sleep?" she asked him throatily, hoping he could read her body, as well as he could always read her mind.

"Several things," he began, his voice so intimate, so intense, she felt it more than heard it. She measured his mouth with her own, her tongue beginning a duel with his, as his gentle, forceful hands began caressing the parts of her that were longing most for his touch. At the same time, her hands began their journey to places on his body they had never before encountered except in her dreams. When he began to moan, she felt first surprised, then exhilarated. Next she was matching him moan for moan as the world began to fall away and all that existed for them in all of Creation was each other.

At which point, Zach's cell phone went off, the ringtones playing "The Stars and Stripes Forever".

"No! she cried out to the Universe. "Not now! Not yet!"

Sighing with all his soul, he answered the call.

"Zach, I'm in trouble," the voice on the other end told him. "I swear I never thought I'd say this, but I need your help. I'm at the Dump, where they buried Uncle Michael, if you could call it that. Don't fail me, I beg you! Above all, hurry!"

The line went dead.

_-----------------------------------------_

_Ethan calling for Zach's help? What could that possibly mean? And why meet at the Dump of all places? Please return for the next thrilling installment! Reviews are cherished!_


	18. Chapter 18

_Chapter Eighteen – "Safety in Numbers"_

_Previously: As they were becoming better acquainted, Kendall and Zach were interrupted by a seemingly desperate phone call from Ethan, begging Zach to help him. As we rejoin our story, it is after 1:00 a.m., but nobody in Ryan's penthouse is close to falling asleep._

Lily and Jonathan sat side-by-side on the floor of Ryan's penthouse, rereading the Script for the twenty-fifth time.

_Jonathan: Lily, do you ever think about kissing me? I think about kissing you all the time. _

_Lily: I don't think about any one thing all the time, Jonathan. That isn't how my mind works._

_Jonathan: I love the way your mind works, Lily._

"Lily, do you ever think about kissing me?"

Lily put the Script down and regarded her boyfriend earnestly. "Are you reading that, Jonathan, or do you really want to know?"

"Both," he replied. "I mean, I was reading it. But I'd also like to know. If you want to tell me. It's okay if you don't want to tell me, Lily."

But she wanted to tell him.

"I think about kissing you all the time," she said. "Can we go back to reading the Script?"

He nodded, afraid to do anything more to show her how elated he felt that she was thinking about what he couldn't stop thinking about.

"We're missing something," Lily was telling him. "What are we missing?"

"You've gone over that stupid thing forty-seven thousand times," NuGreenlee told them, as if she had been asked. "What the hell could you have missed?"

"We've only read it twenty-five times and although we know that Ethan has read it, we don't know how many times," Lily corrected her. "It's completely possible that we could have missed an important clue that will lead us to whoever the Maniac really is."

"How could Ethan have read it?" Ryan asked. "I never showed him the Script. Why would you think I had, Lily?"

"Ryan, Ethan _said_ you showed him the Script," a puzzled Lily explained. "Why would he say that?"

None of them could imagine why.

"It isn't Zach?" Erin asked, following her own thoughts. She was sitting by the window, staring vacantly out into the darkness, as if she could read in it what had happened to Aidan. "Ryan, it isn't Zach?"

"I don't think it is, Erin," Ryan replied from his recliner. "He was originally my Prime Suspect. But not anymore. I believe that he truly loves Kendall. He'd never harm her or anyone she cares about."

"Ry, why don't you come on over here and sit next to me?" NuGreenlee asked him from the sofa.

He hadn't the heart to tell her that since he'd realized that Kendall was the True Love of His Life, he couldn't bear to be anywhere around Greenlee. Even if she was a new Greenlee.

"Zach is definitely innocent," Lily said matter-of-factly. "I just wish I knew who's guilty! "

"Maybe it's my sister, Dixie," Di offered. She was sitting by another window, having wandered over to Ryan's penthouse when she found out nobody was at home at the Chandler Mansion.

"Dixie is dead," NuGreenlee reminded Di.

"Not so much," Di sighed.

--

Derek Frye was fairly certain he was losing his mind. He had managed to maintain a shaky grip on reality for most of the nightmare, but all of that had begun to end when the Chandler Family raced into the police station with the latest horrendous news.

"Adam has vanished!" Krystal yelped first.

"Into thin air!" Babe yelped second.

"I'll have your badge if you don't find him!" JR yelped third.

He still might have been all right, however, if only Amanda hadn't followed them into the police station, a woebegone expression on her tear-stained face.

"It's my Mom," she declared. "She did it! She took everybody!"

"Where is she, Amanda?" Derek asked, ready to send every squad car he could muster to pick her up.

Amanda shook her head. "Who knows?"

It was then that Derek snapped.

"Who knows?" he thundered. "WHO KNOWS? What in blazes am I supposed to do with who knows?"

Nobody knew.

--

"Jonathan, what are we missing?" Lily asked, consulting her boyfriend since she valued his opinion beyond all others.

"Well, what don't we know?" he began gamely.

"We don't know anything," Lily summarized. "We don't even know who wrote the Script!"

"Yes, we do," NuGreenlee piped up. "The Writers wrote it!"

But Lily was shaking her head in an extremely negative fashion.

"We don't know that the Writers wrote it, Greenlee. You said you found it under the couch. Anybody could have put it there for you or Ryan to find."

That caught Ryan's attention.

"But who would have wanted to put it there for Greenlee or me to find?"

Di took a wild guess.

"Whoever wanted us to think Zach is the Maniac."

"So it couldn't have been Zach," Erin continued.

"It had to be the Maniac," Lily concluded.

All eyes turned to NuGreenlee, who had been the one who found the Script.

"I AM NOT THE MANIAC!" she cried out at the top of her lungs.

"What would be her motive?" Jonathan asked Lily.

"Well, it would give her a stronger place on the Show if everybody else was gone," Lily reasoned. "Particularly Kendall, who is on the List."

"And the means?" Erin prompted.

"Unlimited time and resources with nobody suspecting her of anything, because nobody really knows her since she's a new Recast," Lily replied.

"And the opportunity?" Ryan asked softly.

"You tell us, Ryan," Jonathan asked of him. "Were you always with Greenlee since this started?"

"I don't even know who she is," Ryan answered honestly.

"I AM NOT THE MANIAC!" NuGreenlee cried out again at the top of her lungs.

"I don't think she is either," Lily said, surprising them all, right before the doorbell rang.

It was Kendall and Zach.

"Ryan, we need a favor," Zach said in greeting.

"Hi, Zach," Lily said brightly. "Jonathan and I were just telling everybody why we're pretty sure you're not the Maniac."

Zach smiled at her with all his heart.

"Kendall, are you okay?" Ryan asked with genuine concern.

"Actually, I'm extremely frustrated," Kendall answered in all honesty. "Zach got a call from Ethan at the worst possible time in the history of the world."

"My son is asking to meet with me," Zach translated. He hadn't told Kendall the desperation in that call. He never mentioned that Ethan had begged for his help. All he told her was that his son wanted to meet with him and that he wanted to go alone.

"It's probably better that I don't tag along with Zach," Kendall reasoned, completely unaware that the real reason Zach didn't want her along was that he was convinced he was heading into a seriously dangerous situation. "Ethan and I have too much of a history. I don't want to get in the way of a reconciliation."

"So you came here?" NuGreenlee asked, clearly annoyed. "Great."

"Kendall is on the List," Zach stated brusquely. "I don't want to leave her alone." He glanced around at the crowded penthouse living room. "There's safety in numbers, they say."

"The more the merrier," Erin said dully. Every moment made her miss Aidan more. Although she certainly had nothing against her, Kendall's safety was the last thing on her mind.

"Kendall will be all right with us," Di told Zach, in as comforting a tone as she could. She sensed his worry and it resonated with how frantic she was about Tad.

"Ah, but will she really, _really_ be all right?" Kendall asked, more than slightly offended to be spoken about as if she were a difficult child in need of a squad of babysitters.

Zach caught the sarcasm.

"Do this for me, Lovely," he asked of her,. "Humor me. I'll feel better if I know you're with other people while I'm gone."

"Where are you meeting Ethan?" Ryan wanted to know. "I need to know you've gotten where you're going."

"Ryan, I didn't know you cared," Zach deadpanned.

"He doesn't," Kendall guessed. "Tell us anyway."

Zach shrugged. "The Dump. You know, where you wonderful folks buried my brother Michael."

"Your brother Michael belongs in a Dump," Kendall told him bluntly. "Your brother Michael, rapist and demon from hell that he was, is exactly where he belongs!"

Zach winced. He still couldn't connect the monster Michael had become with the sweet boy who had been his younger brother. He couldn't blame Kendall for hating that monster Michael, who had raped her sister, Bianca. But that wasn't Zach's Michael, and it never would be. Still, he didn't want to leave Kendall as angry as she looked at that moment. After all, he reflected sadly, he might never see her again.

"I'll see you soon," he told her nevertheless, embracing her. "Take care of her," he mouthed to Ryan, over her shoulder.

"Always," Ryan mouthed back.

"Why the Dump?" Kendall asked, not letting go of her husband. "Why does he want you to meet him there of all places?"

"Guess I'll find out when I get there," Zach predicted, reluctantly disengaging himself from Kendall and heading out the door. He had a grim foreboding that once he got to the Dump, he would find out much more than he wanted to know.

Kendall began pacing the room as soon as Zach left it.

"Is that necessary?" NuGreenlee asked between her teeth.

"Stuff it, Gina," Kendall advised. Her glance fell on Lily, who looked nothing if not troubled.

"What is it, Lily?" she asked her, afraid to hear the answer.

"I've been thinking about Ethan," Lily said, distress heavy in her voice. "I didn't want to say anything in front of Zach because he's Ethan's Dad. Maybe I should have."

Kendall suddenly wished she hadn't gone along with Zach's plan to meet Ethan by himself. At least not without a fight.

"You're thinking Ethan is in danger?" Kendall asked her tensely. "And that's why he called Zach?"

"No, I don't think Ethan is in danger," Lily told them all. "I think Ethan is the Maniac."

__

--

_Ethan is the Maniac? Could that even be true? Don't be discouraged Ethan fans! I promise many more twists and turns before our inevitable Zen-Happy Ending. Please return here for the next exciting Chapter!_


	19. Chapter 19

_Chapter Nineteen – "Nitro and Glycerin Ride to the Rescue"_

_Previously: Responding to his son's desperate call for help, Zach left Kendall with Ryan, NuGreenlee, Erin, Di, Jonathan and Lily while he went to meet with Ethan at the Dump. The moment after Zach leaves, Lily reveals she has solved the Mystery!_

Nobody breathed.

"Lily, why do you think Ethan is the Maniac?" Kendall heard herself asking.

As usual, Lily was quite matter-of-fact in her analysis.

"Well, motive, means and opportunity are certainly all there," she began.

"What's Ethan's motive?" Jonathan asked.

"He hates Zach because he denied him," everybody in the room replied.

"And he must hate Pine Valley because his part in AMC has shrunk to nothing," Kendall speculated.

Lily was nodding. "Which gave him all the opportunity he needed to vanish everybody. Nobody was paying attention to Ethan. So nobody was paying attention to what he was doing."

"And being a Cambias, he has all the money in the world to accomplish anything he chooses," Di contributed.

"He could have built something somewhere to put them all," Lily went on. "Like Jonathan built the tree house."

"But I didn't build the tree house to put people in it that I kidnapped," Jonathan made clear to all. "I built it so Lily and I would have a place to meet without Jack knowing."

"Because my Dad doesn't want us to be together," Lily explained.

"Can't understand why," Kendall cracked in spite of herself. "Lily, are there any other reasons you suspect Ethan?"

"He isn't in the Script," Lily answered immediately. "That's what I kept missing. I was looking for a clue that was in the Script, but the biggest clue was what _wasn't _in the Script. Ethan isn't really a Newbie and he's definitely not a Recast, so he should be with the Vanished in the Casino's basement. Simone is there and she refers to the fact that Zach denied him. Maybe that's the clue in the Script that I was looking for!"

Lily smiled, not noticing that she was the only one in the room who was.

"But how does Ethan being behind everything account for 'You Are My Sunshine'?" Di asked. "Ethan has nothing to do with that song! And what about Dixie's gold necklace that we found in the Casino's second basement?"

Lily was ready with an answer. "Obviously, both of those were red herrings. Mysteries usually have red herrings to divert suspicion from the guilty culprit. Which in this case, of course, is Ethan."

"Well, I don't believe it!" NuGreenlee said forcefully.

"Shut up, Gina!" Kendall said forcefully. "Lily, honey, is there anything else?"

There was.

"When we met Ethan in the Casino's second basement, he said he suspected Zach because he read it in the Script. That surprised me so I asked him if Ryan had shown him the Script. He nodded yes."

"But I never showed Ethan the Script," Ryan said to them all.

"When you told me that, Ryan, I knew for sure Ethan was the Maniac," Lily concluded.

-------------------------------------

Two minutes and twenty seconds after Derek had ordered Amanda and those Chandlers who were still Unvanished out of his Police Station, he got the call from Ryan.

"You and Kendall are going where and why?" he asked, hardly believing what he had heard. "Hold on, Lavery! Who did you say solved the Mystery? … WHO? … Lavery, are you drunk, stoned or simply too freaked-out to think clearly? … Who does she say is behind this? . . . WHO? . . . And you believe her? . . . Meet you WHERE? . . Not a chance. … Because wild goose chases have no appeal to me, that's why. … I told you before, Lavery, stop trying to do my job!"

-------------------------------------

"Why won't he believe you, Ry?" Jonathan demanded, getting the drift of how Ryan's conversation with Derek had gone.

Lily knew.

"Because Ryan told him I solved the Mystery, that's why."

"Where's Kendall?" an alarmed Ryan asked suddenly, looking around the room.

As it happened, Kendall was standing by the elevator, repeatedly hitting the down button, impatient to rush to save her husband from his son's wrath.

Ryan caught up with her before the elevator arrived.

"You're supposed to wait for me," he said, sounding slightly injured. "We're sticking together. That's the Plan."

"I don't have time to wait," she explained, as the elevator opened and she ran in. "For the record, I don't care about your stupid Plan." She hit the button marked "L" for lobby with a vengeance.

"Zach assigned me to look after you," Ryan reminded her, following her in. "Not that I had to be assigned to do that. I _want_ to look after you."

The elevator began moving down.

"I don't need looking after," Kendall said automatically.

"Sez who?" Ryan disagreed good naturedly.

"Why are you helping me save Zach anyway?" she asked as a point of information. "Don't you still hate him?"

"Absolutely," he affirmed.

"So why --?"

"Because I need to make sure you're okay. Because I'm in love with you. Because I've always been in love with you. Because I'll be in love with you for the rest of my life. You may not want to hear that. But I need you to know."

"You're right. I don't want to hear it." Nevertheless she had to ask him something. "When did you start being in love with detours?"

"Kendall, don't."

"A detour with no soul, I might add. That's what you called me, wasn't it?"

The elevator doors parted, and she walked out so fast, he had trouble keeping up with her.

"I was a fool to let you go," he said quietly.

That slowed her down. Actually, it stopped her in her tracks.

"You got THAT right," she told him. "Shall I ask the obvious question, Ry?"

He had no idea what she was talking about.

"What about Greenlee?"

The question hung in the air between them as they proceeded on to his car.

"Greenlee?" he asked hollowly.

"Yeah, you remember," Kendall reminded him. "Short blonde who became a tall brunette overnight."

Ryan looked infinitely sad.

"I never loved – well, I certainly don't love Greenlee now."

Kendall put a friendly hand on his chest over his heart. "That's because you're not used to Gina," she diagnosed gently. "Give it time. You two were the Real Deal."

Ryan looked infinitely sadder.

"No, that was us," he whispered. "We were the Real Deal. Remember all those years ago when we first met at the Pine Cone?"

Kendall grinned, remembering how he burst into her motel room complaining she was blasting her radio. "When Nitro met Glycerin. We're lucky we didn't kill each other!"

Ryan put his hands over hers.

"It isn't too late for us, Kendall."

"We could still kill each other?"

"We could still be everything to each other."

For the first time in what seemed like forever, Kendall remembered how it used to be between the two of them. When talking, laughing, loving all flowed effortlessly. She still loved him, she'd always love him. Only not in the way he wanted her to love him.

"Ryan we've become two different people," she tried to make him understand. "The only thing we have in common now is that we're both on the same damn wall." She shivered and it wasn't because it was cold out.

"I won't let them vanish you," he promised her solemnly.

"And I won't let them vanish you," she promised him solemnly. "Now let's go save my husband from who the hell knows what!"

-------------------------------------

The Dump was exactly as Zach had remembered it. Except for the 6-story black building that rose up right smack in its center.

"Hi, Dad, good of you to come," Ethan greeted his Father at the door of the Big Black Building, ten seconds after Zach rang the bell. "But I'm a bit disappointed. I thought you'd bring along the Little Woman. Your Better Half. My Former Lover."

Zach tried to read his son's face.

"Ethan, where did the building come from?" he asked, giving up.

"I had it built," Ethan answered proudly. "Kind of a monument to Uncle Michael. There's no marker on the hole they shoved him into, so I had this constructed over it. And guess what! I've moved in. The last of the furniture arrived this morning! Danish Modern. The apartment's quite nice actually, except for the view of course."

There was something chilling in Ethan's voice.

"You said on the phone you were in trouble and needed my help," Zach said quietly. "What's this all about?"

Ethan stepped away from the door and ushered Zach in.

"It's a party, Dad!" he explained, the hatred in his voice barely controlled. "And you're the Guest of Honor!"

"I didn't receive an invitation," Zach said slowly, not moving.

"Zach, don't stand on ceremony!" Erica called out to him. "Please come in!"

-------------------------------------

_Is Ethan really the Maniac? Will Derek believe Lily in time? Who is in the Big Black Building with Erica? Is Zach in danger of losing his life, his wife or both? OMG, will Ryan and Kendall become Rendall once again? What about Janet? What about Dixie? Whew! Please come back for the next installment for all the thrills, chills and probably not too many answers. Yet._


	20. Chapter 20

_Chapter Twenty – " Gathering the Posse"_

_Previously: After Lily's startling and completely unbelievable revelation that she had concluded Ethan was responsible for all of the Vanishings, Kendall and Ryan raced to rescue Zach, who had gone to meet Ethan at the Dump and may well have wandered into unfathomable danger. Before he left for the Dump, Ryan called Derek so he could meet them there. But once he heard who solved the Mystery, Derek all but hung up on him. Amanda, joining the group at the penthouse, tries to explain to Lily how overwhelmed Derek was as Pine Valley continued to disappear on his watch._

After hearing Amanda's account of Derek's current state of mind, Jonathan and Lily exchanged doleful glances.

"You're right, Lily," Jonathan sighed. "Derek won't believe us."

"He's really over the edge. He practically threw me out of the police station when I told him I thought my Mother was the Maniac. Thank goodness I overheard Babe telling JR that all of you were here. There aren't many places left in this town with people!"

"I wish Derek believed us," Lily sighed. "I wish there was some way we could make him believe us!"

Happily enough, Amanda had a bright idea.

"Look, JR is crazy with worry over Adam and Stuart. Maybe if we tell him who the Maniac really is, he'll be able to convince Derek to have Ethan picked up at the Dump. Anyway it's worth a try!"

They had already explained to Amanda the solution to the Mystery that Lily had come up with, and while deep down she still thought her Mom was probably responsible, she was beyond overjoyed to consider an alternative theory.

"But why should JR believe us?" Erin asked in utter and complete despair of ever seeing Aidan again.

"Because JR is always ready to believe the worst," Di replied knowingly. "And Ethan being the Manic is pretty bad." But not the worst. The worst would be Dixie being the Maniac. But Lily's logic had almost freed Di of that worry, despite the gold necklace they had found in the second basement and "You Are My Sunshine" playing on the voice mails of the Vanished. The truth was, all she could think about now was finding Tad. She prayed that he was still alive. Although she realized if he were, she'd have to tell him the truth about Dixie. Too many people knew Dixie was alive for Di to keep it from him any longer. "I'll tell you everything, Tad," she promised him silently. "Even though that will finish Sherlock and Watson forever."

--

"Where the hell did that come from?" Kendall wondered aloud when she and Ryan reached the Dump and saw the Big Black Building for the first time. "That wasn't there before. That's _never_ been there. Has it, Ryan?"

"No, I would have remembered," Ryan was sure. His last trip to the Dump had been to dispose of Michael Cambias' body, after having dug it up, along with Aidan and Tad, from his initial final resting place in the Pine Valley Cemetery. A building that size would definitely have caught his attention. "I wonder why --"

"Shush, listen!" Kendall demanded. "I hear music! There's _music_ coming from it!"

"And laughter," Ryan perceived. "Sounds like a party."

"Here?" Kendall asked. "How can there be a party here of all places?"

--

"I'm sorry, but JR is lying down," Babe told Amanda and the rest of the Posse when they came to Casa Chandler's door. "And take it from me, Amanda, you're the _last_ person he'd want to see."

"Lily's solved the Mystery," Jonathan tried.

"We need JR to convince Derek to go after Ethan," Di elaborated.

"Before Ethan kills Zach," Erin went on.

"And vanishes Kendall and Ryan," Lily added, remembering how much Kendall meant to JR.

"Kendall's in danger?" JR howled, racing down the stairs two at a time. "Babe, let them come inside!"

"Damn, I wish I understood what that skinny skank has," NuGreenlee muttered.

"Honey, you're either born with it," Krystal told her wisely if not kindly, "or you ain't."

"Has Kendall been vanished?" JR asked, fear stabbing through him.

"Not yet," Lily reassured him. "She and Ryan went to save Zach from the Maniac."

"We think Ethan is the Maniac," Di clarified. "Lily worked it all out."

"Lily?" JR asked skeptically.

"Lily is a born detective," Jonathan spoke up.

"That isn't true," Lily demurred. "I wasn't born a detective. I've had to study really hard by reading lots of detective novels. I wasn't always a good detective."

"But you're a good detective now, Lily," Jonathan said.

Lily blushed with pleasure.

"Lily solved the Mystery?" JR repeated.

"JR, this is the first Mystery I've ever actually solved," Lily told him quickly, guessing correctly that he was close to throwing them all out of his Mansion. "I knew I could solve it because I'm really good at solving puzzles, and that's what a mystery is." She stopped to make sure she had his attention.

"Go on, Lily," he told her as if he could read her mind, which she was fairly certain he'd never be able to do in a zillion years. "I'm listening, Lily. Go on."

She went on.

"Okay. Here's my theory of the case: Ethan had the motive, means and opportunity. Also, he isn't in the Script. And he lied about having read it. Also, we found him in the Casino's second basement for no reason except that he possibly planted a gold necklace that Di says belongs to your Mother."

"My Mother?" JR echoed hollowly.

"We'll talk later," Di told him. "Right now, JR, we've got to get Derek to the Dump to save Kendall, Ryan, Zach, and the Vanished!"

--

Chief of Police Derek Frye was listlessly turning the pages of the Script that Ryan had given him. If he were to believe what it said, Zach Slater was the Maniac. But Derek didn't believe that anymore, although he wished he could. Finding the Maniac would bring him closer to finding his sister, Livia. Among others. He sighed, took another swig of coffee, and began rereading the Scene in which Lily solves the Mystery.

_Scene: Jonathan and Lily's Tree House._

_Lily: Jonathan, I've solved the Mystery! _

_Jonathan: I knew you could, Lily! I never doubted you for a second._

_Lily: Thank you, Jonathan. I couldn't have done it without you._

_Jonathan: I think you could have. You're a wonderful detective._

_Lily: Thank you, Jonathan!_

_Jonathan: So whodunit?_

_Lily: Who done what?_

_Jonathan: Who's the Maniac?_

_Lily: Oh. The Maniac is Zach Slater. _

_Jonathan: I should have known._

_Lily: I can't believe it took me so long to figure it out! The proof is Zach's total lack of character. He denied his own son. It's obvious he'd be capable of kidnapping all our friends and family. What a fiend he is! What a heartless villain!_

"Whoever the hell wrote this sure had no love for Zach Slater," Derek thought to himself. "Now who hates Slater?" Everybody, he thought. Well, maybe not Kendall Hart. After all she married him and went into business with him. There must be _something_ perking between those two. And Myrtle Fargate reportedly had a soft spot for him in her big heart. And Bianca liked him, in spite of his twisted brother, Michael.

Derek drank some more of his coffee. "Some family," he thought. "Lots of folks hate that family. Lots of folks hate Slater." He knew that Erica had hated him since they met in Vegas, but she was only one of an extremely large and varied group. Zach Slater was a man of many enemies. But who hated him the most? Wait a second. Didn't Ryan mention somebody in that call a little while back? Somebody he said Lily suspected. Derek sat bolt upright as it all came together for him. Dammit if Jack's daughter hadn't hit the nail on the head!

Derek was out of his office and on his way into his squad car in a flash. He knew who the Maniac was. It had to be him. Had to be. About to get in his car, he noticed a Mercedes and a Jeep Cherokee pulling up to the Police Station, breaks screeching. All of the people he had come to like the least in the universe were getting out and running right toward him screaming something over and over again. What was it? A name? Yeah, that's what it was. JR reached him first.

"It's Ethan," Derek greeted a winded JR. "Good work, Lily."

She glowed her thanks.

"We better get to the Dump before it's too late," JR said. "I've got to save my Father and Uncle Stuart! And Kendall!"

"Go home, all of you!" Derek directed. "Stop trying to do my job!"

"If Lily hadn't done your job, the Mystery still wouldn't be solved," Jonathan couldn't help but point out.

Lily began seeing red.

"We're wasting time!" she shouted at Derek. "Terrible things may be happening to the people we love!"

_Will the Posse get there in time to save most of Pine Valley? Any of Pine Valley? Well, gentle readers, if you imagine you know what's going to happen next, then imagine again! Please come back for our next (hopefully) thrilling chapter! Reviews are cherished!_


	21. Chapter 21

_Chapter Twenty-One —"Down at the Dump_"

_Previously: Lily believes she has solved the Mystery and has convinced almost everybody, including Derek Frye, that Ethan is responsible for the Vanishings. Kendall and Ryan have gone after Zach, who, unaware of Lily's theory, is meeting Ethan at the Pine Valley Dump, where he discovers that a Big Black Building has sprung up where no Big Black Building ever was. Ethan invites him into the building, but Zach hesitates until Erica calls out to him. When Kendall and Ryan get there, they can hear music and laughter coming from the mysterious, ominous building and Kendall wonders how there could be a party going on there of all places? _

Tad felt awash in misgivings. Something did not fit. He didn't care what his parents and Opal and everybody else thought. He sensed danger.

"Have another drink," Brooke urged, pressing a glass of champagne into his hand. "And have you tried the crab puffs? To die for!"

"We're in trouble, Brooke," he confided to her. "All of us."

"You don't think Ethan's plan will work?" she asked him, draining her glass.

"I don't think we know what Ethan's plan is," Tad suggested darkly.

"Of course we do!" Palmer begged to differ, overhearing the exchange. "Thanks to Ethan, the Powers That Be will realize they have no Pine Valley without us. Thanks to Ethan, all of us will be given worthwhile storylines!" He picked up a cocktail weiner from the buffet table and popped it in his mouth. "Thanks to Ethan, we're all back on the Front Burner. Or we soon will be!"

"Some of us were never _off_ the Front Burner," Adam said sweetly.

They all were standing by one or another of the nine buffet tables that lined the walls of the Grand Ballroom of the Big Black Building, filling and refilling their plates despite the time, which was a little after 3:00 a.m. By then the chloroform Ethan had used to drug them had long since worn off, and most of their appetites were fully restored. This was the first meal many of them had since breakfast the day before.

But Tad wasn't eating.

"He _drugged_ us," he reminded whoever was in earshot. "Doesn't that set off a few alarms for anybody?"

"Martin, you're always such a big baby," David Hayward observed distastefully, reaching over him to scoop up some caviar. "Doesn't your constant whining ever bore you?"

"Shut up, David," Liza advised. "And don't take all the caviar! Colby, grab some caviar before it disappears like we did!"

"Dahling, which one is Colby?" Myrtle asked Julia.

"Tall blonde 15-year old," Livia answered, after Julia shrugged.

"Just what AMC needs," Simone said mournfully. "Another blonde."

"I can remember her before she was SORASED," Myrtle reminisced. "Lovely child. Adam, have you introduced yourself to her?"

Adam grunted. "There'll be time enough for that if and when she's back on the Show."

"What does SORAS mean?" Colby whispered to Liza.

"Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome," everybody replied in unison.

"Tad has a point, you know," Aidan told them, changing the subject back to their situation. "Ethan could have clued us in immediately about his scheme to make the Powers That Be appreciate us."

"He told us once he got us here," Stuart reminded them.

"That's true," Marian affirmed. "I remember when I came to, stopped throwing up and started asking questions, he was extremely forthcoming."

"Yeah," Tad agreed. "Why wasn't he extremely forthcoming _before_ he abducted us?"

"Simple," Adam replied. "We wouldn't have willingly gone with him. Well, _I_ wouldn't have willingly gone with him."

"That's because you still have a storyline, you pompous fraud," Palmer spat at him. "But don't think that's because you're so revered and treasured. It's because of your son! You're nothing but a tag-along to JR's storyline!"

"Palmer, prepare to die," Adam said calmly, lunging for his longtime rival's throat.

"Stop it, you two old buzzards," Opal ordered. "Look Tad, given my non-existent presence on the Show, I am not about to look a gift horse in the mouth." She sniffed. "And it looks like the gift horse's Daddy agrees with me!"

After Erica's urging, an uncertain Zach had followed Ethan into the Big Black Building. So there Zach stood in a lavishly decorated ballroom, complete with three massive chandeliers, a lacquered dance floor, nine buffet tables, four giant video monitors (all showing different "Bugs Bunny" cartoons) and every Beatles song ever recorded blaring from every wall (not at the same time, thankfully). He'd have been sure he was dreaming, except for the fact that Kendall wasn't there and Kendall was always in his dreams.

--

At that precise moment, as it happened, Kendall was outside of the Big Black Building, busily debating with Ryan their next course of action.

"Kendall, ring the bell. I'll crouch in the shadows and jump whoever opens the door. Hopefully, it will be Ethan."

"Why can't _I_ crouch in the shadows while you ring the bell?" Kendall queried him. "Then _I_ can jump whoever opens the door. Better yet, did you bring a gun with you? Give it to me and I'll _shoot_ whoever opens the door."

Ryan remembered yet again why he was so in love with her. She was completely beautiful, completely brave and completely crazy.

"I didn't bring a gun, Kendall. This is _Ethan_ we're talking about. I don't want to hurt him. I'll have to knock him out though. It's probably better if I knock him out than if you do. Mostly because I can do it and you can't."

"Sexist," she said, relenting all the same. With an only slightly shaking hand she rang the bell.

Greenlee opened the door.

--

"Why don't you go over to one of the buffets and mingle, Dad?" Ethan suggested, his smile too wide, his eyes too bright, not unlike a wolf about to devour its prey.

"I'm not hungry," Zach replied truthfully. "And those Pine Valley people and I have never really gotten on. What do you suppose they'd tell me if I asked them what they're doing here? What would they say about you, Son?"

Ethan had no doubts whatsoever on the subject. "They'd say because of me they're saving themselves. They'd say I'm a genius. They'd say I've revived their futures in Pine Valley."

"But they would be deluding themselves?" Zach guessed.

"And then some," Ethan granted.

"What are your plans for them?" Zach forced himself to ask.

"Lethal," Ethan answered at once. "And for you as well, Dad. The only difference is they will die quickly and you will die not so quickly. And, of course, I've arranged things so that the blame will fall squarely on your shoulders. Is that the door?"

As if on cue, all four monitors began playing the same cartoon. While Ethan joined Greenlee, who was opening the door, Zach made his way over to one of the buffet tables as four Bugs Bunnies asked four Elmer Fudds what was up. The Beatles were singing "All You Need Is Love", but at that point Zach had his doubts about that.

"Helluva party," he greeted Erica.

"Your son is doing a wonderful, selfless thing," Erica replied, buttering a sesame bagel. "If you were more like him, we might be friends one day."

"We're better off this way," he replied. "Have you eaten anything, Erica?"

"Not hungry," she answered, putting the bagel down. "That chloroform hit me hard."

"Good," he said absently, wondering how he could convince everybody else to stop feasting on what well might be toxic goodies.

"Feeling okay, Simone?" he asked her, noticing the dish of pistachio ice cream she was happily consuming, as Bugs continued to make life even more difficult for Yosemite Sam.

"I feel confused," she confessed. "Ethan's been ignoring me for hours. I can't understand why. We're supposed to be engaged! We should be picking out china patterns!"

"Indeed you should," Zach smiled. "Maybe you should save some room for breakfast," he advised, knocking the dish out of her hands at the same time Bugs knocked the rifle out of Sam's hands. "Oops. Sorry about that."

"I can't take him _anywhere_," Kendall confided to Simone, striding toward them from the door, her beautiful, unblinking eyes riveted on Zach's.

Greenlee was at her side, having led her into the ballroom. Ryan was nowhere in sight.

"Where's your boyfriend?" Zach asked Kendall quietly, dismissing the dream possibility, despite her arrival on the scene. "You remember. The one I asked to keep you safe?"

"I don't know what you mean," she smiled, looking around her. "Well, look's like the gang's all here. Including guess who? Greenlee! Zach, Greenlee's here! Look! Not Gina! None other than the Original Greenlee Duprés Lavery! How the hell have you been, Greens?"

"Dandy," Greenlee told her, grabbing a champagne glass and drifting away, leaving Kendall alone with Zach. "Who the hell is Gina?"

"Okay," Kendall said softly to Zach. "How much trouble are we in?"

"Heaps," Ethan answered, coming up behind her and putting a friendly, familiar arm around her waist. "Care for a truffle?"

"She's not hungry," Zach said at once.

"Actually, I am," Kendall corrected him, wriggling out of Ethan's grasp and reaching for a rice cake.

"No, you aren't," Zach corrected her, slapping it out of her hand.

"Dad thinks the food is chock full of arsenic or similar nasty substances," Ethan explained to an openly puzzled Kendall.

"Why would he think that?" she asked weakly.

"As usual, he's jumped to all the wrong conclusions and gotten it all wrong," Ethan complained. "When I told him I was going to murder everybody in the room, he decided I must be poisoning them."

"You're not?" Zach checked.

"I'm not," Ethan confirmed. "Poison is traceable. That's the reason I explicitly wrote in the Script that you were going to use gas to murder everybody."

"You're going to fill this room with carbon monoxide?" Kendall asked to make sure.

Ethan waved away that thought. "Too cliché. I'm using saran. Also a gas. Just as deadly. Probably deadlier."

"Where did you get --?" Zach began.

"On the internet, naturally" Ethan answered him. "I bet you're wondering how you're going to get blamed for it."

"You're going to blame Zach for murdering everyone?" Kendall gasped.

"What are you three chatting up a storm about?" Opal demanded to know, sidling up to them, as the Beatles started singing "Nowhere Man". "Honestly, you're thick as thieves! You planning a jewel heist as your next caper, Ethan? Can I be in on it?"

"You'll be in on my next caper, Opal," Ethan assured her in a honeyed tone. "Never fear!"

--

Ryan was reeling. He had been poised to jump whoever had come to the door. Both he and Kendall had assumed it would be Ethan. When it turned out to be Greenlee, the _real_ Greenlee, he felt his world turn upside down and then inside out. How could it be? Greenlee had been recast! Hadn't she? If not, who was that girl living with him in his penthouse and helping him clean it up? Kendall had taken the shocking development in her stride and glided into the Big Black Building, leaving Ryan outside to recover and plan his next step. His next step was obvious. He had to get inside that building to find out what was going on. Weighing his options, he decided not to ring the bell.

"There's more than one way to skin a cat," he reasoned. "Not that I would ever consider doing such a thing to a cat. Why did I even think about that? Oh, because there's more than one way to get inside a building. All I have to do is figure out one of the other ways. That's all I have to do." And it was all he wanted to do because Greenlee was inside. _Greenlee_ was inside!

--

_Will Ethan's homicidal plans for the Veterans succeed? Can Zendall turn things around before things turn deadly? Will Derek and the Posse arrive in time to save the day? If Greenlee is still Greenlee, who the heck is Gina? What will Ryan do with TWO Greenlees? Please come back next time when these and other questions will remain unanswered. But not for long! Never fear! And never forget that your Review is the wind beneath my broken wings! _


	22. Chapter 22

_Chapter Twenty-Two – "What A Swell Party This Isn't!"_

_Previously: Inside the Big Black Building, smack in the middle of the Pine Valley Dump, Ethan Cambias is throwing a party for the people he has kidnapped. Oblivious to Ethan's true malevolent intent, the Pine Valley Veterans are eating, drinking and partying, as they watch four huge monitors showing Bugs Bunny Cartoons and listen to every Beatles record ever made. Tad is the only Vanished who has a hard time believing Ethan has only arranged the kidnappings to shock the Powers That Be into using the Veterans more frequently on the Show. Everyone else is happy with Ethan's efforts on their behalf. Except for Zach and Kendall of course, who realize how dire the situation truly is._

"Take another rice cake, Kendall," Ethan, the ever attentive host urged her. "They're quite safe. Really."

"But _we're_ not quite safe, are we, Ethan?" she asked him, already knowing his answer.

"Sorry, Schweetheart," he said in his best Bogart imitation. "It's curtains."

Kendall thought that through while observing her Mother and the rest of their friends merrily eating, drinking and laughing, totally oblivious to the danger they were in. Except for Tad. Tad look worried. Bright boy. For a second Kendall stared at Bugs Bunny outwitting the Martian as the Beatles sang "Strawberry Fields Forever". Then it dawned on her.

"What's to stop us from telling everybody what's going on?" she demanded suddenly. "Everyone will be out of here before you can do anything to stop them!"

Ethan actually simpered.

"Not a chance, Schweetheart. I've got the Remote right here in my coat pocket, next to my heart. If any of my guests make a move on me or the door, I press the button and the room is instantaneously filled with poison gas. Don't you love it?"

"And how do you plan to pin this mass murder on little me?" Zach was asking, sounding maddeningly nonchalant.

Ethan threw his head back and laughed.

"I've written your confession, Dad! See?"

He handed Zach a neatly typed note in which Zach took full responsibility for the slaughter.

"Why should I sign this? What do I gain? You're going to kill me anyway, I take it."

"No doubt about it," Ethan said in a voice that made Kendall, who had once loved that voice, shudder. "Here's how it goes. If you sign the note, you and your lovely wife die painlessly along with all your friends and neighbors."

"And if he doesn't sign it?" Kendall prompted.

"Plan B," Ethan replied. "I'm pretty certain neither of you would be that crazy about Plan B."

Zach had heard enough.

"Let's make a deal, Ethan," he proposed. "I sign your note and everybody goes home safe and sound, including my lovely wife."

"Do you really imagine I'd let everybody go unharmed? Including you, Dad?"

Zach shook his head. "Nope, not including me, Son. But everybody else goes home."

"What happens to you?" Ethan inquired.

"Plan B, I guess," Zach said as easily as if he were stating the correct time. "I take all the blame and you can have all the revenge you want. Sound good?"

Kendall felt so faint, she had to grab onto Zach's arm to steady herself.

"Not good," she managed. "Very, very not good!" Not knowing what else to do, she appealed to Ethan's better nature. "Ethan, you can't be serious! This isn't you! You're not a cold hearted maniac! Are you doing all this as payback? Is this all an awful, elaborate practical joke?"

Zach was reading the note.

"What does it say?" Kendall asked him, none of her wanting to know.

"Standard suicide note and full confession," Zach said, scanning it. "Extremely well-written." He took out a pen and scribbled his signature. "Done! Now, Ethan, let all these wonderful people out of here!"

"Why should I do that, Dad?" Ethan inquired, scrutinizing the signature. "Now that you've signed the confession, why shouldn't I kill everybody? What's to stop me?"

The Beatles were singing "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and Kendall was doing her best not to scream.

"Ethan, look at it this way," Zach urged him as if they were speaking about something that didn't threaten the existence of everyone he knew and/or loved. "You have become a Hero to Pine Valley's Veterans. Everybody in this room considers you the answer to countless prayers. Why kill all that?"

Ethan looked down at the floor as a dubious Daffy was considering Bugs' latest con.

"If nobody dies, there are no victims," Ethan explained, as if to a child. "If there are no victims, what good is your confession, Dad?"

"So I confess to _attempted_ mass murder," Zach improvised.

Ethan's eyes narrowed as he considered the possibilities.

"Foiling Zach's dastardly plot will make you an even bigger Hero," Kendall chimed in excitedly, suddenly seeing a way out for them. "You'll own this town, Ethan! And nobody has to die!"

Ethan face took on a somber cast. "_Somebody_ has to die," he decried. "Or else what's the point?"

The Beatles were singing "She Loves You". Kendall looked toward Bugs, as if for inspiration. They were almost home, if only she said the right thing to Ethan to close the deal.

"So I die," Zach said before she could come up with anything. "I've already signed the note. So where's the problem?"

Ethan knew.

"The note says you brought everybody here to murder them," Ethan reminded Zach, punching it with an index finger for emphasis. "But if I let them live, they'll all say I brought them here to force the Powers That Be to realize how drab Pine Valley would be without its Veterans, which is what I told them all when they regained consciousness. It doesn't square, Dad. I have to kill them or else the note doesn't make sense. What else can I do?"

Zach looked at Kendall and Kendall looked at Zach.

"Change the note?" they asked together.

Which is exactly what he did.

"Anything interesting going on over here?" Tad asked, sauntering over. He was still troubled although he couldn't put his finger on why, except that Ethan had drugged them all one by one and dragged them to a catered Bugs Bunny/Beatles concert. And there wasn't much of an explanation of why.

"We're revising my suicide note," Zach said matter-of-factly.

"Tad, did you enjoy the canapés?" Ethan broke in.

"Ever so much," Tad replied, trying to decipher what Zach was _really_ saying to him.

"Ethan's going to kill Zach and make it look like suicide," Kendall told Tad pointblank. "Plan A was to kill all of us and make it look like Zach did it, but he's moved on to Plan B, which means only Zach has to be murdered."

Ethan whooped with laughter and slapped Tad on the back.

"Very funny, Kendall! Isn't Kendall funny, Zach?"

"She's hysterical," Zach deadpanned.

The Beatles were singing "She Loves You", Bugs Bunny was dodging every bullet fired by an increasingly frustrated Elmer Fudd and Tad Martin decided to take Kendall Hart Slater seriously.

-------------------------------------

_Can Tad help Zendall foil Plan B? Where's Derek and the Posse? Where's Ryan? Please come back next time when at least some of these questions will be answered even as other questions will be posed! Reviews are always read, answered and truly appreciated!_


	23. Chapter 23

_Chapter Twenty-Three – "Plan B"_

_Previously: To save Kendall and the rest of the Pine Valley Veterans, Zach has signed a confession/suicide note that will literally let Ethan get away with murder. Zach's murder. Other than Kendall, the only person at the party who seems suspicious of Ethan's true intent is Tad. His suspicions escalate when Kendall confirms his worst fears. None of them suspect that Lily has convinced Derek Frye that an all-out rescue is in order. But that is exactly what she's done._

More than anything, Lily wanted the squad car to go faster. Even though Derek's siren meant that all the awful red lights they were whizzing by couldn't stop them, the world seemed to her to be in slow motion.

"Don't worry," Jonathan tried to comfort her. "We'll get there in time, Lily. Everything will be okay. You'll see."

They were in a convoy of fifteen cars comprised of thirteen police cars, JR's Mercedes and NuGreenlee's Jeep Cherokee. Lily and Jonathan had piled in with Derek before he could stop them.

"Just don't get in my way," he muttered, eyes on the road ahead. "Don't try to do my job."

"I never would try that," Lily assured him. "All I want is for my Dad and Erica and everybody else to be safe. I don't want to do your job, Derek."

He tried not to smile. "Thank you, Lily. Jack will be very proud of you when he finds out you were the one who cracked this thing wide open."

"I hope so," Lily hoped. "Can't we go any faster?"

-------------------------------------

"Can I ask you a question?" Kendall asked Ethan, who was continuing to study Zach's confession/suicide note.

"I never really loved you," Ethan replied. "It was sex and nothing more."

Kendall nodded. "Duly noted, but I have another question. Why did you use "You are My Sunshine"? Was that to throw false suspicion on Dixie?"

Ethan's blank look told Kendall that wasn't what Ethan ever had in mind.

"What are you talking about?" he asked her, completely puzzled.

"The song on the answering machines of the Vanished," Zach clarified while trying to come up with a way out for all of them, _including_ Ethan.

"That was "This Land is My Land"," Ethan revealed. "Woody Guthrie. My favorite American song. I used it as a tribute to my adopted homeland. Now that you mention it though, it does sound like "You Are My Sunshine". Happy coincidence, I suppose."

But happy Kendall was not. She kept expecting Ryan to burst through the door guns blazing. Then she remembered that Ryan didn't have a gun. When she went inside the Big Black Building after Greenlee – the _real_ Greenlee – had opened the door, she had expected Ryan to sneak around the back, find another way into the building and get the drop on Ethan. "With what?" she asked herself. "His boyish good looks?" Okay, maybe Ryan had phoned for help. Maybe Derek would think the original Greenlee appearing in a Big Black Building in the middle of the Dump was worth investigating. Maybe.

"You're supposed to let everybody go, Son," Zach was saying to Ethan.

Kendall followed his lead.

"You promised," she said.

"And I will," Ethan vowed. "After all, a promise is a promise. You know me. I never go back on my word. See that door to the left? That's where we're headed, Dad. You'll be amazed what's behind it." His voice dropped as he addressed his next remarks to his step-mother. "Kendall, if you prefer to continue living, you can stay right here and leave with the others in a few moments when I kick them out."

"Kick them out first, Son" Zach said evenly. "Then you and I can go anywhere you like."

Ethan signed and moved to the center of the ballroom. All the monitors went dark and the music stopped. Ethan cleared his throat and spoke into a bullhorn.

"Attention Senior Citizens of Pine Valley! Fun's over! Door's open! Hit the road!"

The confused Veterans milled around uncertainly until Ethan turned off the lights, heat and air, forcing them out into the early early morning Dump.

Kendall Hart Slater didn't move a muscle.

"You heard the man," Zach said to her, loving her with each and every fiber of his being. "Time to hit the road."

"Okay, let's hit it!" she replied, linking arms with her husband and joining the exiting throng.

From out of nowhere, Ethan blocked their path.

"Not so fast," he said, pointing a very large revolver pointblank at Zendall. "I've arranged a private party for you, Dad, in the next room."

"Kendall understands," Zach tried, but she wouldn't let go of him. "She'd never intrude on a private party."

"What?" she asked, loving Zach with each and every fiber of her being. "You mean to say I'm not invited to this wing-ding?"

Ethan cocked the revolver. "You know I want you at all my murders, Kendall."

"Swell," she said. "That settles it."

As far as Zach was concerned, however, nothing was settled.

"Kendall, I want you to go home with Erica and Jack," he directed her, waving at Erica and Jack to get their attention, which he didn't.

Ethan was fuming.

"You have until the count of three to sort yourselves out before I shoot you both right here, right now," he said darkly. "This isn't a game. This isn't a joke. This isn't a romantic comedy. This is murder most foul. I'm counting. One."

Kendall hugged Zach hard. "I won't leave you," she whispered desperately in his ear. "I can't leave you. Don't ask me to, Zach. It isn't fair!"

"Lovely, listen!" he implored her. "Whatever happens to me, it will be easier if I know you're safe. Besides, Ethan would never actually hurt me!"

"Two!" Ethan counted.

Zendall kissed each other like there was no tomorrow because there probably wasn't.

"Zach, I can't," she tried to make him understand. "I can't leave you here to die!"

"Lovely, please!" he begged her. "Whatever happened between us, Ethan is my son. He'd never intentionally --"

"You're lying, Zach!" Kendall cried out. "Ethan is going to kill you, and I can't live without you!"

That did it.

"Start walking before I drop both of you lovebirds right here," Ethan growled in lieu of saying 'three'.

-------------------------------------

The second after Ryan began his climb to the second story of the Big Black Building in his search for an open window, below him the door opened with a crash and the Vanished began pouring out.

"I can't believe Ethan expects us to walk home!" he heard Erica exclaim. "It's thirty miles to town and I'm wearing stilettos! We're in the middle of the Dump, for heaven's sake! And what did he mean by that Senior Citizens of Pine Valley crack? Has he lost his mind?"

"Why didn't he let us call cabs?" he heard Opal continue to lament. "It's four o'clock in the morning, for pity's sake! It's pitch black out here! How are we supposed to see where in tarnation we're going? Myrt, don't let go of me or we'll both end up on our cabooses! Palmer, you hang on to Myrt's other arm!"

"Shut up, Opal," Palmer requested as he grabbed Myrtle's other arm. "How can we concentrate on getting the hell out of here with all your infernal jabbering?"

"I wouldn't dream of letting go of either of you, Dahlings," Myrtle assured them both. "But why do you suppose Ethan threw us out like that?"

"I don't know and I don't care," Marian pouted, holding onto Stuart for dear life as they gingerly stepped over heaps of refuse of every disgusting variety imaginable.

"At least he fed us first," Brooke said in Ethan's defense. "I wish it weren't so dark out here!"

"We'll be okay," Stuart tried to soothe them. "Look! I've got the flashlight I carry with me everywhere, and if everybody opens their cell phones, they'll be even more light!"

An amazed Ryan slid down the tattered rope he had found in the Dump and had used for his seemingly unnecessary climb. He pulled out his cell phone, opened it and squinted in the semi-darkness, trying to find Greenlee in the throng.

"You'll kill your batteries," an oh-so-familiar voice cautioned him.

And there she was, not two feet in front of him.

"I don't care about the batteries," he managed, racing to her and sweeping her into his arms.

"What do you care about, Ryan?" Greenlee asked him, having wondered about that for so long.

"You," he suddenly knew. "Only you! Always you! My Green Butterfly!"

Then he heard Erica's voice again.

"Jack, where's Kendall? Didn't she leave with us? She was talking to Ethan and Zach Slater! Kendall! Kendall, where are you?"

-------------------------------------

Kendall was in a meat locker, just off the ballroom, standing next to her husband and step-son. Before them, suspended from a steel bar, swung two meat hooks.

"Remind you of anything, Kendall?" Ethan cooed.

"Maybe "Rocky"? Other than that, nothing I can --"

Zach refreshed her memory.

"You hung my brother Michael from a meat hook not unlike these."

"Your scum-of-the-earth-rapist brother Michael," she corrected him quietly.

Ethan nodded. "Be that as it may, this is how Uncle Michael ended up."

"And you're showing this to us because?" Kendall prompted him.

Ethan giggled.

"You'll never get away with it, Son," Zach felt compelled to say for the record. "People saw us at the party. They're bound to wonder how we ended up on meat hooks."

Ethan slapped Zach's confession/suicide note. "This should answer all their stupid questions and assuage all their nagging doubts."

"Nobody has ever committed suicide by hanging himself from a meat hook," Kendall was fairly certain.

"There's always a first time," Ethan reminded her. "Besides after the explosion your bodies will probably drop from the meat hooks and be cremated in the general incineration. They're not going to find much of either of you when the smoke finally clears."

That ended the debate for a few seconds.

Then Zach had a thought.

"You were supposed to let Kendall go. That was the deal. You never go back on your word, right?"

Ethan shrugged. "I didn't ask her to follow us in here. Your future widow has a mind of her own."

"There's still time," Zach said. "Let her go."

"Let us _both_ go," Kendall suggested immediately. She blinked. "What explosion?"

-------------------------------------

_WHAT explosion? With Zendall in dire straights, who will save the day? Ryan? Tad? Derek? Lily? Erica? ANYBODY? Please return for our next thrilling chapter! (I promise nobody ends up in a coma!)_


	24. Chapter 24

_Chapter Twenty-Four – "When All the Choices Are Bad"_

_Previously: In return for Zach's signature on a confession/suicide note, Ethan has tossed the unharmed but thoroughly confused Vanished out into the Dump, letting them fend for themselves miles away from Pine Valley._

It was not many minutes later that the former Vanished remembered that cell phones could be used as something other than flashlights and began calling taxis to pick them up at the Dump.

"Why won't they come here to pick us up!" a severely frustrated Liza howled, after the fourth cab company she called hung up on her. Others were having similar disappointing results.

"Well it's four o'clock in the morning," Joe Martin said, checking the time on his cell phone. "Hard to get a cab to come to a Dump this early."

But Erica had more on her mind than taxis.

"Ryan, Kendall's not here!" she cried out to him, gracefully stepping between three plastic garbage bags containing medical waste and a discarded xerox machine. "Greenlee! Have you seen Kendall?"

"Yes, but I don't care," Greenlee answered truthfully. "I left the Show, Erica. I'm not on AMC anymore. I don't have to care about any of you anymore."

That made no sense at all to Erica.

"But you're here!" she pointed out. "How on earth could you be here if you're not on the Show anymore?"

"_I'm_ here," Myrtle piped up. "And I'm hardly on the Show anymore!"

Several other Veterans grunted in agreement.

"Look," Greenlee sighed. "Ethan kidnapped me just like everybody else. When I came to in that stupid building, I tried to explain I wasn't on the Show anymore, but he refused to let me go. Even when he found out I was recast. I've been trapped there for six damn weeks!"

"Six weeks?" Julia asked. "What the heck were you doing in that building for six whole weeks?"

"Mostly I watched soap operas," Greenlee revealed.

"Recast?" a still bewildered Erica echoed. "You've been recast?"

Greenlee smirked at Ryan. "According to Kendall, her name is Gina, and according to Ethan, she's the new Mrs. Lavery. Right, Ry?"

"Is that true, Ryan?" Erica asked him, completely aghast. "Is there a Recast Greenlee?"

"I had nothing to do with recasting Greenlee," Ryan maintained quietly. "But Gina seems like a very nice person. Although of course she isn't --"

"Your Green Butterfly?" Greenlee finished for him, not bothering to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

Ryan hung his head.

"Well, Ethan meant well," Opal observed, overhearing the conversation.

"Hah!" Greenlee hahed. "That's what he wanted you all to think. I didn't say anything back there while we were all prisoners because I was busy trying to figure a way out and I really don't care what happens to any of you anyway, but believe you me Ethan didn't abduct everyone in order to save any Veteran's careers on AMC. He meant to knock all of us off."

That got everyone's attention.

"But if that's true, what stopped him?" Julia asked for them all.

"Zach and Kendall," Greenlee answered. "I don't know how they did it, but look! We're free! And we're alive!"

"But where is Zach?" Julia asked.

"And where is Kendall?" Erica asked again.

Brooke had a question of her own.

"Where's Tad?"

Aidan heard her, looked around and didn't see his partner anywhere.

"He must be still inside. I'll go back in, Brooke. You go ahead with the others."

Brooke nodded but waited for Aidan to come out again with Tad. He didn't.

-------------------------------------

Tad was right outside the meat locker trying to plan his next move. He had followed Ethan and Zendall out of the ballroom while everybody else had left at Ethan's request/demand. Now he was kneeling by the door to the meat locker, seeing as much as he could through the keyhole. What he saw, he didn't much like. Ethan had a gun on Zach and Kendall. In back of them hung two – what were they – oh, _meat_ hooks. "Meat hooks?" Tad thought. He could hear talking if he put his ear to the door, but then he couldn't see through the keyhole. He decided hearing what was going on was more important than seeing it.

"WHAT explosion?" Kendall was asking.

"In twenty minutes this gorgeous building will be but a memory. But you two don't have twenty minutes to live, so I wouldn't worry."

"The timer is already set?" Zach asked to make sure.

Ethan frowned. "Damn! I _knew_ I forgot to do something!" He opened the door behind him and began backing out. "This will give you two lovebirds a chance to say bye-bye. See you soon! While I'm gone try to decide who dies first!"

Tad barely got out of Ethan's way as he backed out of the meat locker, still holding the gun on Zendall. While Ethan locked the door, Tad considered his options and decided since Zach and Kendall would keep for a bit in the meat locker, following Ethan to the detonator was his best bet. The problem, of course, was that Ethan had a gun and Tad didn't.

-------------------------------------

Di was the first one to notice the bedraggled group of Veterans who were limping toward them on the highway as dawn broke in a cloudless Pine Valley sky.

"Brooke!" she cried out, jumping out of NuGreenlee's Jeep Cherokee. "What happened?"

"Long story," Brooke answered, squinting at the convoy of police cars slowly winding its way down the highway and toward the Dump. "Where's Derek?"

"Where's Ryan?" NuGreenlee demanded, joining the group.

"Who are you?" Brooke asked her.

NuGreenlee made a face, jumped back into her Jeep Cherokee and drove away toward the Dump.

"Where's Tad?" Di demanded, looking around and not seeing him in the crowd.

"Where's Aidan?" Erin demanded, jumping out of a squad car.

"Where did you get that necklace?" Brooke asked Di, ignoring both questions.

"It's Dixie's," Di replied.

"Like hell it is," Brooke corrected her. "That's mine. Tad gave it to me years ago. I was wearing it yesterday afternoon when Ethan chloroformed me. When I came to, it was gone. Where did you get it?"

"Ethan found it in the second basement," Lily told Brooke, leaning out of Derek's squad car. "Di said it belongs to Dixie."

"Di is mistaken," Brooke said. "Hand it over."

"I could have sworn that Tad gave Dixie a necklace exactly like this one," Di told them all as she took it off and placed it in Brooke's outstretched palm.

"No, Mom's necklace is a star," JR informed Di, getting out of his Mercedes. "Not two interlocking hearts."

"Tad gives each of his wives a different necklace," Brooke explained.

"Guess I'll never find out what mine would have been," Di mused wistfully.

"Guess not," Opal called out over her shoulder, as she climbed into a squad car for the ride home to Pine Valley. "Heartless hussy!"

"Ethan must have planted it in the second basement so we'd think the Vanished had been there," Lily reasoned. "But Di thought it was Dixie's."

"Why would you think it was your dead half-sister's jewelry?" Brooke asked, suddenly curious.

"Mom's not dead," JR said at once, still scarcely believing that could be true.

Di winced, realizing at that point the only citizen of Pine Valley who thought Dixie was still dead was Tad.

"Dad!" JR cried seeing him among the Former Vanished, who were busy finding squad cars to take them home. "Uncle Stuart! Marian! Babe, look! Everybody is here!"

"Almost everybody," Brooke said uneasily. "Derek, we need to talk."

"Where's my Dad and Erica?" Lily asked, frowning with worry. "Where's Kendall and Zach? Where's Tad and Aidan?" Then Lily thought of a scarier question. "Where's Ethan?"

-------------------------------------

Ethan was hunched over the detonator, setting the timer he anticipated would set off the bomb in twenty minutes which would demolish the Big Black Building and all of the evidence therein, including Zendall and Tad. He had Zach's confession/suicide note safely tucked away in his inside coat pocket where he intended it to remain as he made his escape before the building exploded.

"So glad I don't have to shoot you, Tad," Ethan had said cheerfully, after he turned around and realized he was being followed. "I always liked you. Luckily, the blast will take care of everything."

"You've gone out of your mind!" Tad diagnosed, right before Ethan landed a right cross that knocked him unconscious.

"Put up your hands and step away from Tad!" a voice nearly as accented as his own commanded.

"Nice try, Aidan," Ethan smiled as his accomplice smashed a vase over Aidan's head, rendering him as unconscious as Tad was.

Whistling what he imagined was "This Land Is My Land" but was really "You Are My Sunshine" Ethan strolled back to the meat locker to deal with Zendall before the whole place blew sky high.

-------------------------------------

Zendall was having a serious discussion.

"He can't shoot us both at the same time," Zach was saying. "After he shoots me, you'll have a window of opportunity. While he's kneeling over me or while he's dragging me to the meat hook or while he's hanging me up, you can get the drop on him."

"You paint such pretty word pictures," Kendall marveled. "No wonder I adore you. As a point of information, what do I get the drop on him with? My girlish charm? I'm unarmed, Zach."

She thought again about Ryan, who was also unarmed, and wondered why he wasn't rescuing them anyway.

"There must be something you can use to knock him out with." Zach frowned, scanning the bare meat locker.

"How about that gun in your pocket?" Kendall suggested. "That is a gun, isn't it Zach? Or are you just happy to see me?"

Zach didn't even crack a smile. "Forget about the gun, Kendall. We're not killing my son today."

"Your son wants to kill _us _today," Kendall reminded him. "Your son wants to hang us up on meat hooks and blow up this building! Look, Zach. Killing Ethan isn't my first choice. But sometimes there are no good choices!"

"Ethan isn't a murderer," Zach maintained. "It isn't in him."

"How would you know, Dad?" Ethan asked, opening the door and walking through it. "You have no idea who I am!"

"Luckily, I do," Kendall said, grabbing Zach's gun and aiming it right between Ethan's eyes, which she used to love to look into so much once upon a time.

"Kendall, don't!" Ethan and Zach chorused.

Without an instant's hesitation, Kendall pulled the trigger.

-------------------------------------

_Oh, no she didn't! Or did she? And who could Ethan's accomplice be? Time will tell, but I won't! Please return for the next chilling installment! Your review is ALWAYS welcome!_


	25. Chapter 25

_Chapter Twenty-Five – "What's Love Got to Do With It?"_

_Previously: Ethan left Zendall, whom he had been holding at gunpoint in a meat locker in the Big Black Building, so that he could set the detonator of the bomb he had planted elsewhere in the building. Looking through the keyhole and listening at the door, Tad learned of the bomb and followed Ethan to it, intent on stopping him. Instead, Ethan knocked him cold and his accomplice crashed a vase over Aidan's head. Kendall noticed the gun Zach was carrying and urged him to save their lives by shooting Ethan. Zach refused. As soon as Ethan returned, Kendall grabbed the gun and fired.. As we rejoin our Adventure, Brooke is confiding her worst fears to Derek as Jonathan and Lily listen intently. _

Brooke was confiding her worst fears to Derek as Jonathan and Lily listened intently.

"Tad isn't here, and he should be," she said. "Back in the building he was telling me he didn't trust Ethan. Derek, what I'm afraid of is that Ethan found out Tad was suspicious. What I'm more afraid of is that Tad was right to be suspicious! Aidan went back to look for him, but he didn't come out again. And his phone's turned off. So is Tad's."

Derek, who felt infinitely happier, not to mention saner, since he spotted Livia in the crowd of the Former Vanished and gotten her into a squad car heading back to Pine Valley, took Brooke's fears to heart.

"We'll get there in time to save everybody, Brooke," he promised, stepping on the gas. "Climb in!"

Most of the Former Vanished had been put in squad cars and were headed back to Pine Valley, which reduced the Police Convoy by about three-fourths.

"Derek, you're an Angel!" Opal called out before she was driven off. "You don't know what we've been through!"

"Shut up and get in the car," Palmer advised her. "None of us knows what we've been through."

"You got that right, Dahling," Myrtle affirmed. "I'm beginning to think Ethan wasn't on the up-and-up with us!"

"Ya think?" Opal said, frankly disappointed that her dream of a Veteran resurgence on AMC was beginning to look like nothing more than a pipedream.

"I never thought I'd want to see Pine Valley again," Liza was muttering as she and Colby got into a squad car. "Actually, I still don't."

"Poor Liza, poor Colby," Marian commiserated. "Stuart, do you think Ethan's plan worked? Do you think the Powers That Be will use us more in the Show?"

"I think Tad may have been right about Ethan's motives," Stuart replied sadly. "And I always _liked_ Ethan!"

Brooke had already told Lily that Erica and Jack were safe, but as they drove on with Derek to the Big Black Building, Lily was still worried. She wasn't the only one.

"But why aren't they here?" Jonathan wondered. "Why isn't Ryan here?"

"Kendall didn't come out with the rest of us," Brooke explained again. "Neither did Zach. Neither did Tad. Aidan went back to look for Tad and he didn't come out again."

"This isn't good," Lily said, beginning to rock. "This is the opposite of good. This is bad."

--

"What the hell was that?" Greenlee was asking at that exact moment, hearing Kendall's gunshot.

"Somebody is shooting in there!" Erica screamed out. "Ryan, we have to save Kendall! It may already be too late!"

"Erica, that sounded more like a backfire," Jack lied, hoping to keep her calm.

"Greenlee, I've got to go back in there and save Kendall and Zach," Ryan said soberly. "I wouldn't be surprised if they were in mortal danger."

"Thank you, Ryan!" Erica said with all of her heart. "You know I've always been all Rendall."

Hearing Erica say that, something clicked in Greenlee's mind and heart. She suddenly realized something vitally important. Whether or not she was on AMC anymore, she was still connected to Ryan Lavery. Not the perpetually enraged Ryan she had seen in that Fight Club, but the heroic Ryan she had once fallen so hopelessly in love with and married. The Ryan who was standing in front of her now, ready to risk life and limb and who knew what else to save a woman he hadn't cared about in years and a man he had _never_ cared about. Briefly, Greenlee wondered if Ryan's feelings for Kendall had come back to life since she'd been away. But how could that be? Ryan loved his Green Butterfly. The Original Greenlee! Not Gina, the Imposter-Greenlee. And certainly not Kendall!

"Forget Rendell, Erica," she therefore said, her gaze never wavering from Ryan's. "Come on, Ry. You know how much mortal danger turns me on! You can choose between Greenlees later on. But remember, whatever happens, Kendall doesn't get you!" She laughed. "Because Kendall doesn't GET you!"

JR's Mercedes drove up and screeched to a stop.

"I'm coming in too!" Di said, racing out of it, along with JR, Babe, Adam, Krystal Amanda and Erin. "Tad's missing! So is Aidan! So is Zach! So is Kendall!" Suddenly she realized she was face-to-face with the Original Greenlee. "Whoa! How can YOU be here? Isn't this against some law of physics?"

"Screw physics," Greenlee decried. "Let's go back in there and save our friends!"

--

Kendall missed Ethan by a mile. Before she could re-aim, however, her former lover wrestled the gun away from her and pocketed it.

"Gutsy move," he complimented her. "You never deserved her, Dad."

"We agree," Zach said. "So why don't you open the door and let her go? This is between us, Son. You and me. Kendall has nothing to do with anything that's happened between us."

"She tried to kill me," Ethan pointed out. "You didn't notice that?"

"This is Kendall we're talking about. If she wanted to kill you, you'd be dead."

But Ethan wasn't having any of it.

"You're whistling in the dark, Dad. Or if not, you're grasping at straws. Either way, it won't do you two any good. I set the timer, which means in fifteen minutes or so this entire building is going to blow sky-high. With your corpses in it. It's so wonderful when a plan comes together!"

But Kendall was not about to let her husband go quietly into that good night.

"Ethan, Zach loves you!" she spoke up. "He didn't want to shoot you! I took the gun from him because he didn't want to shoot you! He could have stopped you from taking the gun away from me, but he didn't!"

Ethan raised an eyebrow at that.

"You didn't want to shoot me?" he checked with Zach. "You love me?"

Zach only shook his head. "Kendall, my son doesn't care if I love him or don't love him. All he cares about now is hurting me."

"But you told me he wouldn't kill you!" Kendall cried out, trying not to look at the swaying meat hooks. "You told me it wasn't in him!"

Zach stared at the gun Ethan was leveling at him. "Let her go, Son."

Ethan laughed a chilling laugh.

"Who wants to die first?" he asked them. "Dad? Step-Mum?"

--

Di and Erin raced ahead of the others back into the Big Black Building. Once back inside, Di found Tad easily enough by following the sound of his moans.

"Tad! Are you okay? What happened to you?"

He was rubbing the back of his head and trying to sit up.

"Give us a hand, Watson," he requested of her. "We've got us a detonator we need to deactivate!"

Erin burst through the door as Di was helping Tad to his feet.

"Where's Aidan?" she demanded in agony.

"Right here," Aidan said, walking in, rubbing the top of his head.

"Looks like Ethan had a chat with you too, Fish 'N Chips," Tad observed.

"Not Ethan," Aidan corrected him. "Somebody else is helping him. I didn't see who. Came up from behind me."

"Oh, goody!" Tad said. "Exactly what I wanted to hear!"

--

Before Rylee, Jabe, Jerica and the rest of the Posse could storm the Big Black Building in search of Zendall and Taidan, Derek and the remainder of the Police Convoy drove up and immediately began laying down yellow tape, putting up barricades and issuing orders.

"This is a crime scene," Derek informed them all. "Nobody goes beyond this line. I'm in charge."

"Derek, Ryan and I have got to get in there to save Kendall!" Erica tried to make him understand.

"Ryan and YOU?" Greenlee hooted.

Jily and Brooke got out of Derek's squad car and headed straight for the Posse, who were crowded at the yellow-taped, barricaded entrance to the Big Black Building.

"Derek doesn't like other people trying to do his job," Lily earnestly told Erica.

As if to emphasize that point, a uniformed officer handed Derek a bullhorn.

"Ethan, it's all over! Come outside with your hands up, and no one will get hurt!"

--

"Ethan, it's all over," Kendall echoed Derek, whose offer had boomed at them loudly enough to keep a surprised Ethan from pulling the trigger. "If you go outside with your hands up, no one will get hurt."

"But I _want_ somebody to get hurt!" he said, sounding nothing if not petulant.

"Sometimes we don't get exactly what we want, Son," Zach said carefully.

"I _never_ get what I want," Ethan said sounding nothing if not rueful. He cocked the revolver and aimed straight for Zach's heart. "Except for this time! In ten minutes this building will be history! But you two are about to become history first! Good-bye, Daddy! Enjoy yourself in Hell!"

"Ethan, your father loves you!" Kendall screamed out, trying her best to shield Zach by throwing herself in front of him, before he could do anything stop her.

Ethan shrugged. "What's love got to do with it?"

--

Tad, Di, Aidan and Erin all heard a deafening gunshot. They were too absorbed in detonator deactivation, however, to dream of investigating where it came from.

"What's that ticking sound?" Di asked fearfully, looking down at the detonator as if it were a rattlesnake.

"Don't worry about the ticking," Aidan said. "It's when the ticking stops that we need to worry. Unless we figure out a way to deactivate it, of course. That would stop the ticking in a good way."

"So there's a red wire and a green wire," Tad summarized, looking at the ticking detonator's red wire and green wire.

"There's always a red wire and green wire," Aidan explained to Di and Erin. "One of them has got to be cut to deactivate the detonator. Cutting the other wire will make the bomb go off immediately."

"So which wire is which?" Erin and Di asked together.

"That's an astoundingly apt question," Tad said tensely, his eyes never leaving the wires.

"The problem is, it changes from detonator to detonator," Aidan continued to explain. "Unless the bomb is yours, you never know which color wire will deactivate it and which color wire will set it off."

"Somebody should think of standardizing that," Di observed.

"Too late now," Tad sighed. "Which do you prefer, Watson? Red or green?"

Di hesitated. She might never get another chance to tell Tad what she needed to tell him most.

"Tad, there's something about Dixie that you need to know."

"Tell him later," Erin urged. "The ticking's getting louder."

"There may not be a later," Di said.

Tad was looking at Di as if she'd gone bonkers.

"Cut the red wire," Aidan said, handing Tad his pocketknife. "Just a hunch."

"Dixie isn't dead," Di blurted out, lowering her eyes in case Tad's horrified or elated or puzzled face was the last thing she would ever see. "Dixie is alive, Tad! I've known for a long time but she swore me to secrecy!"

Tad cut the green wire.

--

_Did Tad cut the right wire? Did Ethan kill Zach or Kendall or both? Will Derek's yellow tape keep the Posse outside? Please read the next exciting chapter as we race toward our inevitable conclusion! Reviews are treasured!_


	26. Chapter 26

_Chapter Twenty-Six – "It's Always Darkest Before the Total Eclipse"_

_Previously – Ethan is all set to murder Zendall while Derek has yellow-taped the Big Black Building, preventing Ryan, Erica and the rest of the Posse from rescuing them. Using a bullhorn, Derek has told Ethan to come up before anyone gets hurt. Ethan seems to want somebody to get hurt. As we join today's episode, Tad has cut the bomb's green wire after Di reveals that Dixie is not as dead as Tad thought she was._

The ticking stopped.

"Tad, you did it!" Di cried out, flinging her arms around him.

"Dixie isn't dead?" Tad asked her.

"I said the _red _wire," Aidan told him. "You don't listen, mate."

"Thank goodness he didn't!" Di laughed, a trifle hysterically.

"Dixie isn't dead?" Tad asked her.

--

Outside the Big Black Building everybody heard the deafening gunshot.

"What was that?" Erica screamed.

"Another backfire?" Jack asked hopefully.

Derek raised his bullhorn again.

"Ethan, we heard a shot. Is anybody hurt?"

--

Somebody was hurt. In fact, somebody had been knocked cold.

"Never say I never did you a favor," David Hayward was saying to Zendall, surveying Ethan's prone form and still smoking gun, evidencing that before he fell unconscious, he had managed to get a shot off which went right into the floor.

"Was that Karate, Kung Fu, Aikido or Kendo?" Zach inquired with professional interest, as he gently took Ethan's gun from him and slipped it in his pocket.

"None of the above," David said. "It was the Vulcan Death Grip. Works every time."

Those were the last words David said before somebody came up behind him and crashed a vase over his head.

--

"Derek, you've got to let me go in there," Ryan pleaded. "My sister, Erin, ran in before you got here and she hasn't come out!"

But Derek was unmoved. "I've told you twelve thousand times before, Lavery. Don't try to do my job!"

"Derek, Ethan isn't answering you!" Brooke pointed out to him. "We've got to get in there and find out what's happening!"

"Derek, please!" Erica implored. "There was gunfire! Kendall is in there! She could be hurt! She could need help!"

"I hate all of you with all my heart," Greenlee said quietly, ducking under the yellow tape and walking into the Big Black Building before anyone noticed.

--

"Okay, Fish 'N Chips, kindly escort these ladies out of here," Tad requested, fresh from his triumph over the bomb. "As far out as humanly possible."

"We haven't saved Kendall and Zach yet!" Di protested. "Tad, you have to let me stay and help you!"

Tad Martin could not believe his ears.

"Help me? HELP me? When have you ever helped me? Since the unfortunate day I met you, when have you ever done anything but lie to me?"

"I've done something else!" Di replied quickly. "I've loved you. I still love you, Tad. I'll always love you, no matter what."

--

Neglecting to close the door behind her, Ethan's accomplice stood grinning over the thoroughly unconscious body of Doctor David Hayward. Then she spied the thoroughly unconscious body of Ethan Cambias.

"Ethan, wake up!" she cried out, going over to him, kneeling and cradling his head in her lap.

"Who the hell are you, lady?" Simone asked from the doorway.

"Greenlee," Zendall answered.

"Like hell she is!" Greenlee snorted, walking past Simone and into the meat locker. "Man, it's cold in here!"

NuGreenlee stood up too quickly, allowing Ethan to roll out of her lap.

"Ow!" he said, coming to, as his head hit the floor.

"Oh, baby, are you hurt?" Simone cried out, going to him.

But Ethan was too busy worrying about the fate of his Master Plan to concern himself with his aching head. How long had he been unconscious? How long did he have before the bomb went off? He waved Simone away, stood up unaided and checked his Rolex. "Gina, get my gun!" he then directed her brusquely. "I dropped it somewhere when Hayward knocked me out!"

"Gina got here too late," Zach told him. "I've got your gun, Son. Got mine also."

"Shoot him!" Kendall urged her husband. "With either gun! With _both_ guns! We gotta get outta here before the bomb goes off!"

"There's a bomb?" Greenlee asked.

"There's a bomb?" Simone asked.

"Lovely, we've been all through that," Zach said patiently. "There's no way I'm going to shoot my son!"

"Because Dad loves me, Kendall!" Ethan explained, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "And he trusts my better nature to come to the fore. It won't. My Father assumes that I won't really hurt anybody. He's wrong. Totally, utterly, completely and stupidly wrong. He probably doesn't believe there really is a bomb. Wrong again. You never ever get it right. Do you, Dad?"

Simone had heard enough.

"How the hell did you get this screwed up this fast?" she demanded of her fiancé.

"Ethan, let's end this now," Kendall urged. "Zach has got your gun and his gun and unless Phony Baloney Greenlee plans to bean all of us with vases, I'd say your Reign of Terror is kaput!"

"That's okay, Ethan," Gina said, leveling her very own gun at everybody in the room. "Phony Baloney Greenlee never leaves home without packing heat!"

--

"Where's Greenlee?" Ryan was asking Erica.

"Who cares about Greenlee?" Erica screamed. "It's Kendall you should be worrying about! Ryan, what's the matter with you?"

Actually, Ryan considered that a completely appropriate question. What _was_ the matter with him? He had been deeply, irrevocably in love with Kendall not over an hour ago. Then he saw the Original Greenlee, and all bets were off.

"Go in there and rescue her!" Erica commanded, probably not meaning Greenlee.

"Don't try it, Lavery," Derek countermanded Erica. "That building is sealed off for a reason!"

--

Before Di could convince Tad to allow her to stay and help him with the Zendall rescue, the bomb ticking started again.

"I _told _you it was the red wire," Aidan said glumly.

"Well, nothing blew up when Tad cut the green wire," Di defended him. "Maybe it started ticking again because there's a built-in back-up failsafe thingy."

Tad nodded. "Yeah, that must be it," he muttered, truly at his wit's end. "A built-in back-up failsafe thingy. I shoulda known."

"Maybe there's a _blue_ wire," Erin theorized.

--

"How ya doing?" Greenlee asked David, who was just beginning to come around as Gina leveled her gun at everyone in sight.

"I've been better," he diagnosed. "What hit me?"

"_That_," Greenlee replied, pointing at her gun-toting Recast. "The new improved factory-fresh taller than tall moi."

"Gina, drop the gun," Kendall tried. "You can't shoot all of us!"

"She's right!" Greenlee joined in. "You're outnumbered and outclassed."

"What should I do, Ethan?" Gina inquired emotionlessly. "Take them all down one by one?"

"Gina, there's a bomb about to go off!" Kendall said urgently. "What part of 'blown to bits' don't you understand? We need to get the hell out of here!"

"Listen to her, Gina," Zach advised. "There isn't much time left."

"Apparently, there's a bomb," Greenlee filled in David.

"Then why don't we get out of here before it goes off?" he asked logically.

Gina pointed her gun at them. "Don't get any cute ideas, you two. Should I whack them, Ethan?"

Ethan grimaced. This was not what he had envisioned at all. He wanted his father and Kendall swinging neatly from meat hooks, not a St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

"Hand over my gun, Dad," he requested of Zach, as Gina covered him. "And while you're at it, hand over your gun as well. Or else I'll ask Gina to start blowing people away, beginning with your oh so beautiful wife."

Reluctantly, Zach handed Ethan both guns.

"There are too many people in here, Son," he told him. "This couldn't have been part of your Plan B."

"If you're about to tell me I'll never get away with this, don't bother," Ethan replied soberly.

Simone decided to give it another try. "Ethan, baby, this is so wrong!"

"Should I shoot her first?" Gina asked Ethan.

"Wait a second," Kendall interrupted before Ethan could answer. "Before you murder any of us, and before we all blow up, you've got to explain how Gina fits into this. Did you hire her to pretend to be the new Greenlee so she could plant the Script you wrote that implicated Zach?"

"What if I did?" Ethan said, sounding bored but actually calculating how much time was left before the explosion.

"He told me about her six weeks ago when he abducted me," Greenlee recounted. "But he neglected to tell me she was eight feet tall and a ditz."

Gina bridled at that. "I am _not_ eight feet tall, you Smurf! You're just jealous because Ryan loves me more than he ever loved you!"

Greenlee guffawed. "In your dreams, girlie!"

"None of this matters," Ethan told them all. "This whole wretched building is due to blow up any second." He checked his watch again. "Actually, it should have blown up five minutes ago."

Everybody in the meat locker ran for the door except Ethan and Gina.

"Hold it!" Gina ordered, cocking her gun. "You wanna go check the bomb, Ethan? I can keep our friends entertained till you get back."

"Tying them up will most likely help with that," Ethan said, producing some heavy rope from a nearby storage bin. When everyone was sufficiently bound, he hurried out to check the bomb as Tad, Aidan, Di and Erin kept looking for the blue wire.

--

_Can Tad somehow overcome the built-in back-up failsafe thingy and deactivate that bomb once and for all before it blows the Big Black Building, and everybody in it, to smithereens ? Can the Meat Locker Hostages break their bonds and escape despite Gina and Gina's gun? Will Derek and the Posse get there in the nick of time already? Please read our next exciting chapter which will feature Zendall facing the jaws of doom side-by-side.. Yum! Reviews mean EVERYTHING!_


	27. Chapter 27

_Chapter Twenty-Seven – "The Total Eclipse"_

_Previously: The bomb stopped ticking after Tad cut the green wire. Unseen by Derek and the Posse, Greenlee entered the Big Black Building after a deafening gunshot was heard. Although aiming at Zach, Ethan fired that shot into the floor as David Hayward knocked him out from behind. David was in turn knocked out by Gina, whom it turns out is none other than Ethan's Accomplice. Greenlee wandered into the meat locker, joining Zendall, Simone, David, Ethan and Gina. Ethan continued to threaten to murder everybody in sight, particularly Zach. After Ethan tied up his captives and left to check on why the bomb hadn't gone off, it began ticking again. As today's episode begins, JR has run out of patience._

JR had run out of patience.

"Derek, you've got to send your men in there," he directed. "The longer we wait, the less chance we have of saving anybody!"

"My sister's in there," Ryan added. "Kendall is in there. Greenlee is in there. _Both_ Greenlees."

"Zach is in there" Lily continued. "Tad is in there. And Di. And my first boyfriend, Aidan. And I think Simone is in there too."

"I need backup," Derek maintained. "Most of my men had to turn back in order to drive the Veterans home. You can't expect me to storm that building until I have more people!"

"You've got us," Amanda said at once. She motioned at the concerned faces all around them.

"You're civilians," Derek spat out scornfully.

"We're _citizens_," Amanda said with real passion."We're Newbies and Recasts it's true, but first and foremost, we're citizens of Pine Valley and we won't be discounted. If some of us are in danger, all of us are in danger. At a time like this, what difference does it make if a person is a Newbie or a Veteran?"

"Amanda, I'm not arguing with you," Derek said, touched to the core in spite of himself. "I'm a Recast myself! You still can't go in there! You're civilians! I've called for back-up. I don't like it either, but we're gonna have to wait until I have more trained actual Policemen!"

"Some folks think we don't belong in Pine Valley," Babe continued, having given the subject a great deal of thought since the Veterans had begun disappearing. "Some folks think we dominate every storyline so Pine Valley doesn't even look like Pine Valley anymore." She shook her head in sad amazement at that. "Like it's our fault the Writers don't write front-burner storylines for the Veterans." She sighed deeply. "Look, there's good and bad all over. Ninety-nine percent of the Newbies and Recasts are wonderful characters and fine additions to AMC. It's that one percent that, along with the Writers and the Powers That Be, ruin it for the rest! Still and all, this is our town, and we're here to rescue our friends and neighbors!"

"You tell 'em, Babydoll," Krystal said loyally, although she couldn't help but wonder who Babe thought was in that one percent.

"Babe's right!" Brooke, unexpectedly moved, told Derek. "To tell the truth, I've resented being swept from the front burner by all the new faces that have invaded AMC these last years. I lost Adam, the one man I have always loved, to Krystal, and nobody could tell me why, including my agent. But at a time like this, whether we're Newbies, Recasts or Veterans doesn't matter! It's all beside the point! Lives are at stake, Derek! Nothing else matters!"

"But you're not Police," Derek said yet again. "_That_ matters!"

"Erica, Brooke, Ryan, Jack and I aren't Newbies or Recasts," Adam came forward to add. "But we're still here to rescue our friends and neighbors!"

"Thank you, Adam!" Erica cried out. "Thank you, Brooke! Thank you, Amanda! Thank you, Babe, although I still hate you with everything that's in me because of what you did to Bianca! And I'm sure Kendall hates you too!"

"You're welcome, Erica," Babe said uncertainly.

Derek knew when he was on the losing side of a fight. "Okay, we're going in. But stay back. Nobody do anything stupid!"

--

"I don't see a blue wire," Tad reported. The bomb was still ticking and the number on the timer was down to 666. "Actually, I don't see the red wire anymore either."

"That 666 probably doesn't mean sixty-six hours six minutes, does it?" Di checked without much hope.

"Six minutes, six seconds and six-tenths second," Ethan informed her, walking through the door and confirming all of their worst fears. "Sounds devilish, doesn't it?"

Tad was actually happy to see him. "How does thing this shut off?"

Ethan grinned. "By blowing up, silly!"

--

Before Ethan left to find the bomb, he had tied Zach and Kendall to the meat hooks.

"You might as well kill them now," Gina had opined. "Why wait?"

Kendall had stiffened as she realized she might die beside the love of her life before she got to live beside the love of her life.

But Ethan had shaken his head. "No time for that now, Gina. I've got to see about my bomb. Something is wrong. It should have gone off already. Even if Tad woke up and pulled the right wire, the built-in failsafe back-up thingy should have kicked in by now."

Zach had looked his son square in the eye as the ropes were being pulled tightly around his wrists, lashing them to the meat hook, pulling his arms painfully up and over his head.

"That's not why you're not killing me, Son. You can't kill me. You can't kill. It isn't in you."

"Zach, don't dare him!" Kendall had cried out shrilly.

"You don't know me, Zach. You never knew me. You never even wanted to know me." The absolute sadness in Ethan's voice made him sound nothing like the Maniac everybody in the meat locker but Zach knew him to be.

--

"Ethan listen," Di was pleading with him now. "It doesn't have to end like this. We don't have to all blow up."

"I'm not going to blow up," Ethan said, as Tad finished tying up Aidan. Waving his gun to convince each of them, he had ordered Erin to tie up Di, Aidan to tie up Erin, and Tad to tie up Aidan. "I'm getting out of here as soon as I've taken care of Tad."

"You can't tie me up and hold the gun on me at the same time," Tad pointed out. "Why not let me hold the gun?"

"Why not kill you instead?" Ethan laughed.

Di looked stricken.

"Ethan, Tad doesn't deserve to die!" she cried out. "Nobody here deserves to die!"

The bomb ticked on, but Ethan made no move to leave.

"Who gets what they deserve?" he asked, sounding rueful and introspective, which surprised them. "Did I deserve to be denied by my Father?"

"You have every right to be angry at Zach," Di said. "But why take it out on all of Pine Valley?"

"I didn't deserve the way all of Pine Valley treated me," Ethan answered bitterly. "They threw me away like a used Kleenex. There could have been a major storyline with me trying to win Kendall back from Zach. But the Idiots in Charge went another way. They may as well have killed me off. There's no place for me in Pine Valley."

Di saw an opening and dived through it for all she was worth. "Ethan, Pine Valley isn't the only town in the world! Actually, Ethan, a man with your appeal is wasted in this hick town! How can you expect stodgy old Pine Valley to understand a man of your, your, what's the right word, Tad?"

"Schizophrenia?" Tad guessed.

"Sophistication," Di said quickly. "There are other places, _better_ places for you to live, Ethan!"

"Really?" he asked, having never having thought his problems might have a geographic solution.

"Of course there are!" Di cried out. "There's Port Charles! There's Llanview! And that's only the towns on ABC!"

Erin saw where Di was going and followed along. "Ethan, any Show in its right mind would want you! There's Harmony! There's Oakdale! What am I leaving out, Aidan?"

"There's Springfield!" Aidan picked up. "There's Genoa City! What's the other one, Tad?"

Tad felt a sudden surge of admiration for Di. She never gave up and she never gave in. Then he realized it wasn't only admiration that was surging in him. Oh, no. Was he in love with her again? How could he be in love with the woman who pretended to be Dixie and then to top it all off neglected to tell him that the real Dixie was alive?

"Tad, what's that other town?" she prompted him desperately.

"Salem! " he called out, remembering. "There's Salem! Sounds right up your alley, Ethan!"

"Salem," Ethan repeated thoughtfully, as the bomb's ticking grew louder. "That does have a ring to it!"

--

As Zendall stood side by side, tied to their respective meat hooks, the only thing there seemed left to look forward to was blowing up together.

"I loved you, Zach Slater, from the second I saw you," Kendall told him quietly. "And as hard as I tried to stop loving you, I never could." More than anything, she wished she could turn her head far enough to see his face one last time. "That's all right," she comforted herself, picturing him now, even as she spoke to him. "I know his face by heart." His tragic, beautiful, sensitive, expressive, gorgeous, perfect face.

"I'll love you for all the time there is, Lovely," he replied, trying not to focus on how little time that might be. Should he have shot his son to save their lives? He couldn't let himself think that. Not yet. He had to keep believing that Ethan couldn't actually murder anybody. He hadn't killed anybody before he left to restart the bomb. That was good. He hadn't gone through with Plan B. But had he reset the bomb? Was that Plan C? He couldn't allow himself to regret not having shot Ethan when he had the chance. That wouldn't do anything but drive him crazy, and what good would that do them? To stay sane, he had to concentrate on Kendall. He couldn't see her face, but that wasn't so bad he told himself because he knew her face by heart. Her tragic, beautiful, sensitive, expressive, gorgeous, perfect face. He was picturing her now, even as she spoke to him.

"We were great together," she was going on, her voice breaking only slightly. "We made history! We were a supercouple. We were ZENDALL! And we were first-rate detectives!" She stopped, realizing she was talking about them in the past-tense. "Well, we would have been first-rate detectives, if we had more time."

"We certainly solved _this_ case, Lovely," Zach agreed, although he guessed Lily Montgomery had probably been the one who solved it.

"And we found a way to tell each other the way we feel about each other," she went on. "And I found a way to trust you. Zach, you taught me how to trust!"

Since he was powerless to save either of them physically, Zach wanted to give Kendall something to cling to, to save her emotionally as much as he could for as long as he could.

"So I've taught you how to trust," he said to her. "Have I taught you how to hope? Can you hope, Kendall? Even here? Even now?"

"Yes," Kendall said because she knew that was what Zach wanted to hear. And it was true. At that moment, she was hoping her hardest that Ethan would fall on his gun and shoot himself to death before he reset the bomb.

"And we nearly got to make love, Mrs. Slater," Zach added, distracting her completely from her homicidal fantasy. "Although every time we were together, no matter what else we seemed to be doing, we were really making love."

"Every word you ever spoke to me was a kiss," Kendall said softly.

"Shut up!" Gina shouted. "Nobody wants to hear you idiots blathering on and on!"

"Such a romantic!" David marveled. "Where did Ethan get her?"

"It's been nice knowing you, David," Greenlee said, following her own thoughts. "I'm sorry we didn't get to say good-bye before I left the Show."

They were on the floor, side by side, bound head and foot, but to Gina's growing annoyance, not gagged.

"You should have said good-bye to me too," Simone called out from the corner, where she sat similarly trussed up.

"I was too mad at Mrs. Slater," Greenlee called back. "And Ryan, of course."

"MY Ryan," Gina sought to make clear.

"You can have him," David snickered.

"No!" Greenlee said.

"YES!" Gina said.

"No," Ryan said.

--

"_No," Ryan said? Are the Meat Locker Hostages about to be rescued or is Ryan about to be captured? What color wire will defuse the bomb for once and for all? Can Ethan Cambias find happiness in a Soap that takes place in Salem? Or will his new home be Statesville? Please come back next time when these and other questions will finally begin to be answered. Always remember: your review is the cream in my coffee! And they're telling us now that coffee is GOOD for us!_


	28. Chapter 28

_Chapter Twenty-Eight – "Invasion of the Newbies"_

_Previously: Things did not look peachy keen in the Big Black Building for our Heroes. Before Tad could find another wire to cut in his continuing attempt to diffuse the bomb, Ethan appeared and tied up as many people as he could, as Di tried to interest him in relocating to another Soap. Back in the meat locker Gina kept the hostages at gunpoint while a seemingly doomed Zendall comforted each other as best they could. Greenlee and NuGreenlee traded insults but were interrupted by Ryan as the Invasion of the Newbies began._

Newbies, Recasts, Veterans and Police poured into the Big Black Building in search of Ethan, Zach, Kendall, Tad, Di, Aidan, Erin, Simone and Greenlee. They were more than fearful of what they'd find, having heard gunfire coming from inside more than once that morning.

The first thing they found was an empty ballroom.

"Let's split up," Derek directed. Erica, Jack, Lily, Jonathan, Ryan and four Policemen went through the door on the left, which led them into the meat locker. Derek, JR, Babe, Amanda, Adam, Krystal, Brooke and four Policemen went through the door on the right which brought them into the room with the ticking bomb, where they discovered Tad, Di, Aidan, Erin and Ethan. And the ticking bomb.

"You're under arrest," Derek greeted Ethan.

"I'm going to Salem," Ethan replied with a big smile. "It's the answer to everything!"

"It is?" a bewildered Amanda asked.

"Derek, get his gun," Adam directed.

"I don't take orders from you, Chandler," Derek replied automatically. "Ethan, where the hell is your gun?"

In his joy over having found a new career direction, Ethan had put away his gun and untied Aidan, Di and Erin. Now at Derek's request, he reached into his pocket and handed over both his gun and the gun he had taken from Zach.

"Tad, are you okay?" a concerned Brooke asked him.

"I found the blue wire," Tad reported proudly.

"Well, I don't know what that means, but we're glad you folks are safe and sound," Krystal said for them all.

"Good job, mate," an untied-up Aidan breathed to Tad. "Better hurry though. We're down to 6 seconds. And I still say it's the red wire."

"Tad, what the hell is Aidan talking about?" JR asked.

"He's talking about a red wire," Babe said. "But I can't imagine why. JR, what's that ticking sound?"

Tad cut the blue wire, and the ticking stopped.

"There's a bomb?" Derek yelped, seeing the whole picture at last. "Cambias, you planted a BOMB?"

"It's okay, Derek," Di told him. "Ethan helped us deactivate it."

"No, he didn't," Tad said.

"Well, he untied us, Tad, and he didn't tie you up and that helped deactivate it," Di reasoned.

"I'll let the Prosecutor know," Derek mumbled, leading Ethan away. "That might fall under extenuating circumstances. Especially in this town."

Amanda begged Derek to wait a moment before he hauled Ethan away.

"Ethan, was my Mom involved in any of this?" she asked him haltingly.

"Your Mom?" Ethan asked. "Oh, Janet from Another Planet. The Recast who was the Original." He smiled at Amanda. "No, Amanda. This was my Show. I kidnapped the Veterans. I left "This Land Is My Land" on the voicemails of the Veterans I abducted. I hired Zendall and Taiden. I scrawled the lists of the Already Vanished and Vanished to Come in invisible ink on Myrtle's walls. I wrote the Script. I planted the bomb. I did it all and I stood tall and did it my way!"

"I'm so glad!" Amanda cried out, awash in relief.

"This Land Is My Land?" Di asked, confused. "That wasn't 'You Are My Sunshine'?"

"Why would it be 'You Are My Sunshine'?" Ethan asked her.

She smiled, knowing that any doubt she had left about Dixie's involvement in this nightmare had been expunged.

"Hey, if I stay in Pine Valley, my trial could be a great storyline!" Ethan realized suddenly.

"Go to Salem!" Tad, Di, Aidan and Erin chorused.

--

Meanwhile, in a chillier part of the Big Black Building, NuGreenlee was pointing a shaky gun at Ryan, while Erica, Jack, Jonathan, Lily and four Policemen lingered outside the open door, none of them wanting to make any sudden move that might set Gina off.

"If it isn't Dynamite Kiddo," Greenlee said softly, looking up. "Good to see ya. Be careful, Ryan. I don't think Imitation Me is too tightly wrapped."

"You okay?" he bent down to whisper quickly.

"Are you for real?" she whispered back. "I'm bound hand and foot. A giant Maxi-Me is pointing a gun at me. How could I possibly be okay? Now stop jabbering and get that witch!"

Ryan nodded and straightened up. "It's over, Gina," he told her carefully, taking Greenlee's words of caution to heart. "Give me the gun!"

"OVER?" Gina howled. "How can it be over? You don't understand! Ethan is going to come back for me and we're going to return together to Pine Valley in triumph and take it over as soon as this building blows up!"

"As soon as this building blows up?" Ryan echoed, a trifle taken aback.

"Yeah, we really should continue this conversation outside," Greenlee said, struggling with her ropes.

Erica could linger outside the door no longer.

"Kendall are you all right?" she screamed, bursting into the meat locker and running to her daughter. "Has Zach hurt you?"

"Mom, I'm fine," Kendall assured her "Or at least I will be fine as soon as somebody gets the gun away from that looneytune and cuts us down from here. Zach isn't the one who hurt me. Zach will never hurt me. Zach does nothing but save me. He loves me. I love him. We're married. Get used to it."

"Hi, Mom!" Zach greeted her.

"Gina, give me the gun," Ryan was begging her. "Nothing bad will happen if you give me the gun. Nobody has to get hurt, Gina!"

"Why are you calling me Gina?" Gina screamed at him. "I'm Greenlee, Ry! You know that!"

"She's Greenlee, Ry," David repeated, hoping Ryan would be smart enough to play along, although he had his doubts.

"You know that, Ryan!" Simone piped up. "We all know that. If there's one thing we know, it's that she's Greenlee."

"Look, Jonathan!" Lily said happily. "There's the real Greenlee on the floor, all tied up!"

"No, that's Greenlee over there pointing the gun at Ryan," Jonathan said, having gotten the drift. "I don't know who that tied-up lady on the floor is, but she looks kinda mean. And definitely not like Greenlee!"

"Okay," Lily said, not understanding, but trusting Jonathan anyway because she knew he would never lie to her.

Gina's head had begun to ache. "Are we okay, Ry?" she asked weakly, aiming the gun straight at his forehead.

"We're _swell_," he told her, praying she'd believe him. "Give me the gun, Green Butterfly!"

"Nice touch," Greenlee murmured.

--

"Tad," Di said, as they began following Derek, JR, Babe, Amanda, Adam, Krystal, Brooke and Ethan out of the nightmare.

"What, Watson?" he grinned, happy to have a reason not to hate himself because he loved her. "You really came through before with Ethan, convincing him to try another town. Like "Days of Our Lives" would ever give him a tumble! Ha!"

Di was staring at the bomb.

"Tad, why does it say 666 again?"

The ticking resumed.

--

"Greenlee, Ethan isn't coming back," Zach felt it important to tell Gina.

"Zach's right," Kendall confirmed. "If Ethan were coming back, he'd be here already. But _they're_ here. The Police, I mean. They wouldn't be here if Ethan were coming back. Try to put it together. This isn't rocket science, Gina."

Gina felt bathed in an icy calm. This was her moment. She might never have a moment like this again. She stood her tallest and did her best to radiate poise and conviction. Every line had to be said perfectly. Every gesture had to be gestured perfectly.

"All my life I've wanted to be a Soap Star," she revealed dramatically, keeping the gun aimed at Ryan's forehead. "All my life! Being a Soap Star is all I've ever wanted!" She paused to let that sink in. "Nothing else has ever mattered to me. Nothing else matters to me now. It's the only dream I ever had."

Her words hung in the frozen silence of the meat locker. Hostages, Police and Posse stared at her, feeling an unhappy mixture of horror and pity. Worse than that, for one millisecond in time everybody there identified completely with her.

"Say something," Greenlee murmured to Ryan, snapping out of it. "Answer her fast! She's gonna kill me, Ryan. I'm the one her delusional brain figures is standing in her way."

Ryan scowled in thought. Greenlee, the _real_ Greenlee, was in more danger than any of them. He had to protect her. Or die trying.

"Your dream can come true!" he told Gina, making it up as he went along. "It's feasible! Every single day people are becoming Soap Stars. Actually, there's a Show on Cable called "So You Wanna Be a --".

"I failed the audition," Gina admitted miserably, tears stinging her eyes. "Three times!"

"Why does that not surprise me?" Greenlee cracked.

Gina pointed the gun at her.

"At least I can take down one of you before you all get me," she said, cocking the trigger. "Say your prayers, Smurf!"

--

"Maybe you missed one of the blue wires?" Di was whispering to Tad.

"There was only one damn blue wire," Tad said, trying to keep his temper. "And I cut it. All we have left is a yellow wire, an orange wire, an aqua wire and a violet wire." He squinted. "And the red wire. It was hiding behind the yellow wire. I knew I didn't trust the red wire." He stopped a moment to mop his brow, which was doing nothing if not perspiring. "Cutting one of these has got to deactivate that damn bomb for good. Unless it sets it off. Derek, isn't there anybody on the Pine Valley Police Force that detonates bombs for a living? I'm only a talented amateur."

"The Bomb Squad is on its way," Derek answered tensely. "But odds are they won't get here in time."

"Okay, it's too crowded in here," Tad decided. "Everybody out. That includes you, Watson."

"I'm staying, mate," Aidan said at once. "Erin, go home. I'll call you later."

"There may not be a later," Erin said, having no intention whatever of leaving her First with a ticking bomb.

"Cut the orange wire, Tad," Di said steadily. "I believe in you. We all believe in you."

"Cut the red wire, mate," Aidan urged.

Tad cut the yellow wire, the ticking stopped, the detonator went back to 666 and the ticking started again.

"It's like that freakin' computer on 'Lost!'" Di realized. "Every six minutes, six seconds and six-tenths second another wire has to be cut! Tad, are we going to stick around to cut the next wire? And the next wire? And the next wire? Until we cut the wire that blows us up?"

After one solid second of intense reflection, everybody ran out of the room, leaving behind the still ticking bomb to wait for the Bomb Squad, which probably wouldn't get there in time.

--

Not knowing the bomb had started ticking again, Brooke and Adam had left the Big Black Building to find out if anybody had found Zendall. Nobody seemed to know.

"Brooke, I overheard what you said back there," Adam said quietly.

"You mean about Krystal stealing my storyline?" Brooke asked him.

"About me being the one man you've always loved," he said. "Am I, or was that only something you said?"

Brooke considered that. "It was only something I said," she said.

Adam's face fell.

"But you are," she finished. "I love you, Adam. Please don't ask me why!"

He brightened.

"Wanna fool around?" he asked hopefully. "On a regular basis?"

"Cheat on your wife?" she gasped. "Have an illicit affair?" She laughed out loud. "Sounds like a storyline to me!"

--

"I coulda been somebody," Gina was telling her captive audience, still pointing her gun at Greenlee. "I coulda been a contender!"

"Sure you could have," Greenlee muttered. "But on your best day, you couldn't have been ME!"

"You're not helping!" Ryan whispered to Greenlee.

"She sure as sugar isn't!" Gina agreed, taking careful aim.

"What are your plans if my son doesn't come back for you?" Zach asked, hoping to take Gina's mind off of murdering Greenlee.

"And he won't come back for you," Kendall added. "None of us will ever see Ethan again!" At least she prayed none of them would. "You're not gonna be a Soap Star, Gina! You're gonna be a Convict!"

Gina took the gun off Greenlee and aimed it squarely at Kendall.

Erica Kane had about enough. Her beautiful, talented, brilliant daughter, who was tied to a meat hook next to a man she could never accept as her son-in-law, was about to be shot to death by a Soap Star Wannabe. None of that was remotely acceptable.

"Whoever you are, Miss, I think you better drop that gun!"

Gina was about to laugh scornfully, at which point Erica high-kicked the gun clean out of her hand. It flew far, far above them all, as if in the slowest of slow motions.

"I was a showgirl in Vegas for a brief time last year," Erica explained to the cheering Meat Locker Hostages, as the gun began its slow descent.

"Vegas," Greenlee said thoughtfully.

Not taking his eyes off the gun for an instant, Ryan raced to where he estimated it would land, reached high with both hands, dove for it and caught it on the fly.

"I played semi-pro ball a few seasons," he admitted shyly over the ensuing applause.

"Ry, I love you!" Gina cried out as Police surrounded her, cuffed her and led her away. "How can you let them do this to me? I'm an actress! I live in a world of make-believe! I never would have actually shot anyone! I was only playing a part!"

"NOW she tells us!" Kendall laughed, as Police cut her and her husband down from their meat hooks.

"How goes it with you, Lovely?" Zach asked, when she was safe in his arms.

"Never better," she told him, ignoring her aching shoulders and bruised wrists. And it was the truth. She felt safe, she felt cherished, she felt incredibly grateful to be alive and in love.

"Folks, there's a bomb about to go off in the next six minutes, six seconds and six-tenths second!" Derek yelled from the door. "EVERYBODY OUT!"

"Derek, is my son all right?" Zach shouted, as hand-in hand, he and Kendall ran along with everyone else from the Big Black Building. "Did he give himself up without a struggle?"

"Is he dead?" Kendall asked hopefully.

"Ethan's in a squad car on its way back to Pine Valley," Derek reported to Zach's immense relief. "Although for some reason he keeps saying he's going to Salem."

Six minutes, six seconds and six-tenths second after the last person had run for his/her life out of the Big Black Building, the bomb finally blew up. The last people out of the building were thrown high into the air from the sheer force of the blast. One would assume that some would have been hurt, killed or both. Amazingly enough, nobody was even injured. In the not inconsiderable panic and confusion that ensued, a handcuffed man and woman evaded the shocked and bewildered police and made their joint-escape to parts unknown. (Some said to Salem, but that could not be immediately substantiated.) Meanwhile, debris fell as far away as Llanview, where a section of the roof knocked out a beautiful young attorney named Evangeline Williamson, who had lost her sight not long before in a hideous accident. Amazingly enough, when she regained consciousness, she could see again. The massive explosion was heard throughout Pine Valley, where windows should have been broken and power lines should have come down. Amazingly enough, none of that happened. In fact, nobody paid much attention to the enormous roar, except for Jamie Martin, who woke up at the sound, then turned over and went back to sleep.

--

_Please come back for our Saga's final chapter, wherein we shall discover exactly who gets their oh so richly deserved Happy Ending and who doesn't!_


	29. Chapter 29

_Chapter Twenty-Nine – "Happy Endings Pine Valley-Style"_

_Previously: The first twenty-eight chapters. _

"Make love to me," Kendall requested of her husband when they got back to her place. Actually, it was more of a demand than a request.

"That sounds like an order," he observed, his eyes shining.

"You betcha," she confirmed, turning. "Now unzip this damn dress, and no back-talk."

Slowly, he began unzipping her, gently kissing her neck as he unzipped. "And here I thought you could handle zippers all by yourself. Sorry. Was that back-talk?"

She faced him, her unzipped dress beginning to dip off her shoulders. "I can do zippers, if I have to. But I'm better at buttons."

She began unbuttoning his shirt with a silent determination that thrilled him to his core.

"Mind if I take a shower first?" he laughed, half-heartedly fending off her advances. "That dump, or what's left of it after the explosion, could use a good going over with a mop and pail."

"I could use a good going over too," she informed him, unbuckling his belt. "But not with a mop. And not with a pail." Her come-on might have been more erotic, she realized, if she wasn't collapsing with giggles as she continued her seduction. But Zach didn't seem to mind.

Naturally, the phone began to ring.

"Don't you dare answer that," Kendall directed. "I mean it, Zach. Leave that stupid phone alone and rip my clothes off right now. Or else."

"Or else you'll leave me for always and ever?" he asked, picking up the receiver. "Are you threatening me, Lovely, with the death and dissolution of Zendall?"

"Shut up," Kendall grumbled, slipping off the rest of her clothes and kicking them away.

"Whoever you are, you couldn't have a worse sense of timing," Zach told the caller, never taking his eyes off of his no longer clothed wife.

"Zach, it's Derek," the caller said. "Ethan and Gina have escaped somehow. We've set up roadblocks. Don't you start looking for them, Slater. I'm getting pretty sick of amateurs trying to do my job. Sit tight, and I'll keep you posted."

"You do that," Zach replied, hanging up and going back to Kendall.

"Anything important?" she asked as she unzipped him.

"Importance is a relative concept," he replied, sweeping her off her feet and carrying her into the bedroom.

"That's what I always say," she agreed, right before she became incapable of coherent thought for a wonderful while.

-------------------------------------

"I'm so glad Dixie wasn't involved with Ethan in any of that," Di told Tad, handing him the last piece of pizza.

"Dixie Who?" Tad asked happily.

"I'm in love with you, Sherlock," Di said with all her heart. "Did you know that?"

"I suspected as much," Tad said. "That's one mystery I solved eons ago."

Di laughed, overjoyed that they were bantering once again. "Mastermind! Tell me, how did you ever come to solve that particular mystery?"

"Elementary, my dear Watson," Tad replied. "The tip-off was you let me have the last piece of pizza!"

-------------------------------------

Derek had called Amanda, asking her to come to the Station right away. She couldn't imagine why.

"Amanda!" Janet cried out when she walked in. "Why haven't you been returning our calls?"

"You shouldn't worry your Mother, Mandible," Trevor told her, embracing her. "You know how crazy she is about us!"

"I'm sorry!" Amanda apologized. "I thought I was calling you both! Did you get new cell phones or something? Didn't they let you keep the same numbers?"

"They froze our old numbers," Janet complained. "Who knows why? But we're saving a bundle on the new Plan! Oh, Amanda! Did I forget to tell you about it?"

Amanda blinked back tears of joy.

"It doesn't matter, Mom! Really! I'm so glad to see you both! You have no idea!"

-------------------------------------

_Scene: The Tree House. Jonathan and Lily are celebrating her solution to the Mystery._

_Jonathan: Lily, you did it! Now everybody in town knows how smart you are!_

_Lily: I couldn't have solved the Mystery if you hadn't helped me, Jonathan. We make a wonderful team._

_Jonathan (embracing her): We sure do!_

Lily put down the discredited Script and smiled at Jonathan. She couldn't remember being this happy in all of her young life.

"Jonathan, I think my Dad likes you more than he used to like you," she said to her best friend. "His face was less red than usual when he saw us together at the Dump."

"That's only because he turned pale, Lily," Jonathan agreed to disagree. "I'd like him to like me, but I guess that will take more time. Anyway, all I really care about is whether you like me!"

She thought that through.

"I don't like you anymore, Jonathan," she informed him.

"You don't?" he asked, his heart sinking and breaking at the same time.

"No, I definitely don't like you anymore." She counted to ten before she told him the rest. "I LOVE YOU!"

Saying nothing further, she leaped into his open arms and hugged him tight, forgetting completely, maybe for forever, that she didn't like to be touched.

-------------------------------------

"Greenlee, I still can't believe you're here!" Ryan was saying to her. They were in the Penthouse, and everything seemed back in place, exactly as it was before he faked his own death (for her own good) and broke her heart (for her own good).

"I'm leaving for Vegas tomorrow," Greenlee told him emotionlessly. "This is our last night together. I'll always feel connected to you, Ryan. But I realize now that isn't enough for either one of us. We deserve more out of life and love than one another."

Ryan felt as if she'd punched him in the stomach.

"You can't mean that!" he gasped.

"Yes, I can," she sighed.

"I apologize for pretending to be dead," he apologized. "I apologize for nearly putting you through a wall when you told me you were pregnant."

"You were going through a rough patch," Greenlee told him. "I understand, Ryan. But we're over and out."

"I never loved Gina," he told her passionately. "I just needed you back so bad, I glommed onto the first Greenlee Substitute that came my way. I was a fool."

Greenlee sighed again.

"And my love for Kendall faded as soon as I saw you come out of the Big Black Building," he continued to recount. "Of course Kendall and I will always be a part of each other's lives and at some point in time I'll probably fall in love with her again."

"Too much information," Greenlee laughed. "I'll send you both postcards from Vegas."

"Vegas?" Ryan echoed, beginning to take it all in. "You're serious about that? Why would you want to go to Vegas?"

"I'm not sure," Greenlee answered. "I keep thinking my Destiny is waiting for me there."

"I thought I was your Destiny. I thought we were the Destiny Couple."

"That wouldn't be us, Ry," Greenlee said wisely, if not kindly.

-------------------------------------

"Zach, will there always be a Zendall?" Kendall happened to be inquiring of her mate at that very moment.

Their passion spent, they were on the bedroom floor, not having been able to make it all the way to the bed, securely wrapped in each other.

"You mean, Zendall the Detective Agency?" he asked playfully, knowing exactly what she meant.

"I mean Zendall the _US_," she clarified. "Will we always be together, Zach?"

He wasn't going to lie to her. "The future is a guess, Lovely. You know that as well as I do. All we have is now. All anybody has is now."

That was _so_ not what she wanted to hear.

"You can foresee a day when you won't want me?" she challenged him in a "how dare you?" tone of voice.

He shrugged. "Or when you won't want me. That's the nature of the lives we lead, Lovely. We're on shifting sand. Things go along placidly for a while and then there's a Sweeps Week or a Contract has to be renegotiated, and all hell breaks loose."

She couldn't accept that.

"How can we live our lives on shifting sand?" she needed to know.

"We live in Pine Valley," he reminded her. "Living our lives on shifting sand is standard operating procedure. It's what we do. It's who we are."

"I don't care," she said for the record. "Whatever happens, I will always, always love you as much as I love you now."

"And that's a lot, huh?" he laughed, kissing her again. And again. And again.

"What do you need me to tell you?" he asked her huskily.

She didn't hesitate. "That we will live in each other's love for all of Eternity."

"Okay," he said.

At which point Zendall became lost in each other, which they knew would always be the best place to find themselves. At least until the next time the sand shifted and all hell broke loose.

"Maybe we could do a movie," she suggested to him much, much later. "Does the sand shift less for movie stars?"

"Not really. It's the nature of our Business, Lovely."

"Maybe we could stay on television and do prime time. A Sit-Com." She got a brighter idea. "How about a Detective Show?"

"Isn't that what we just got through doing?"

"How about a SciFi?"

"Did that already. But that was in another timeline. You wouldn't remember any of that."

She certainly didn't. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Zach."

He grinned, loving her more every instant. "Then let's stop talking, Lovely."

"Lets!" she smiled, reaching for him.

So they stopped talking for the rest of the day and most of that night, and most of the next day. And they lived happily ever after. At least until November Sweeps. But that's another story!

_Thank you, AMC for giving me such fabulous characters to borrow! Please, PLEASE write front-burner story lines for the Veterans! Thank you, FanFiction for existing! Thank you EVERYBODY for reading and reviewing! All together now:  
__ZEN IS DESTINY!_


End file.
